By A Correspondent

New Delhi: The India-Russia joint venture, BrahMos Aerospace, has said it was ready to supply the supersonic cruise missile to Russia, if a request was received, even as the weapon system would arm all future Indian warships built at domestic shipyards. BrahMos Aerospace’s joint managing director, Alexander Maksichev, gave out this information to the Russian news agency, TASS, at the Fleet 2026 International Maritime Defence Show in St. Petersburg on Wednesday (June 10, 2026).

“We are ready to fulfil an order if we receive a request from the Russian side. These will either be missiles for the navy or missiles for ground forces. We have sufficient capacities, and we understand that the Russian side wants (the missile),” Maksichev said in an interview. While India’s all three defence services – army, navy and air force – have already inducted the BrahMos cruise missile’s different variants in the last 20-plus years, Russia is yet to buy and induct even one regiment of the weapon system to date.

In April 2024, the Philippines became the first export customer for the BrahMos missiles, with India delivering two batches of the weapon system by April 2025, as part of Manila’s $375 million order. Earlier this year, Vietnam became the second export customer. But the contract value is yet to be made public. Both the Philippines and Vietnam have a maritime territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea, and both these nations are said to have bought the naval variant of the BrahMos missile. Indonesia, an ASEAN member and a maritime neighbour of India, is all set to become the third export customer later this year, as a contract for the BrahMos missile is currently at the advanced negotiations stage.

BrahMos to Arm Future Indian Navy Ships

“All advanced ships of the Indian Navy, first-line ships, are outfitted and will be subsequently outfitted with BrahMos missiles. The (Indian) navy has tested them in the process of various tests. The missile development has not been put on hold, and we constantly develop the missile’s combat capabilities,” said the Russian representative on the BrahMos Aerospace Board.

Several of the Indian Navy’s frontline destroyers and frigates already carry the BrahMos missiles. While the older warships carry up to eight BrahMos missiles, the new destroyers and frigates can carry up to 16 BrahMos missiles. In all, the Indian Navy plans to have all its destroyers and frigates to carry cumulatively around 300 BrahMos missiles on board.

The joint venture had tested the BrahMos missile for the first time in 2001, three years after the joint venture was established in February 1998 through an inter-governmental agreement between India and Russia in Moscow. While all three of India’s armed forces have already inducted the BrahMos missile, Russia has yet to buy one.

BrahMos battlefield tested in Operation Sindoor

BrahMos is the world’s only operational supersonic cruise missile, touching Mach 3 speeds and reaching targets 300 km to 800 km away. The weapon system is the product of a collaboration between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya. India and Russia have a 50.5% and 49.5% share in their joint venture. The first BrahMos missile was tested in 200, three years after the joint venture was signed in 1998 in Moscow. While Russia contributes critical technologies such as ramjet propulsion and seekers for the BrahMos missile, India shares airframe, fire control, and guidance systems.

India had successfully deployed the BrahMos missiles during the May 2025 Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, when the weapon system destroyed key military installations and terrorist infrastructure during the four-day war. In March 2022, a BrahMos misfire incident resulted in the missile, without any warhead, crashing inside Pakistan, but causing damage to civilian properties.

The misfire by a BrahMos unit in Ambala in Haryana hit Mian Channu in Khanewal district in Pakistan’s Punjab, cruising about 124 km in three minutes and 44 seconds. Though Pakistan’s air-defence systems picked up the misfired missile, it could not intercept it on time. Pakistan condemned the incident, while India admitted, two days later, that it was a mistake and deeply regretted it.

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