Interview | Chief Executive Officer and Chief Managing Director, BrahMos Aerospace, Atul Dinkar Rane

How can exports be encouraged in BrahMos and DRDO?

It is great that the Philippines deal took place. The Philippine Department of National Defence had shown interest for quite some time. In fact, BrahMos has been in contact with them since 2008-2009, so it did not happen overnight. Finally, they needed a potent weapon and BrahMos was an obvious option. We thought that the Philippines would use the Line of Credit (LC) that India had given them, but they decided to use the LC for something else, we hope for more BrahMos. They are buying from us for the Philippines Marine Corps.

Would you like to confirm what sort of number the Philippines is looking at? Are you in talks with the Philippine Army too?

That is the prerogative of the Philippines. Our task is to complete the delivery in the stipulated time frame.

The Philippines Army also has shown interest. There is hardly any difference between the navy and the army configuration. Our system is universal. The same missile can be used for anti-ship as well as for land attacks. The Philippines Army, at present, wants missiles that are identical to the Philippines Marine Corps. They intend to equip the first regiment with the anti-ship version.

As of now, the contract has been signed and the notice to proceed has been received and very soon, the hardware will start flowing.

Which are the other countries interested in BrahMos?

Many countries have spoken to us. The joint venture was originally created with the idea of producing anti-ship missiles and marketing them to friendly countries, depending upon country-to-country agreements. Many years back in 2001, when we participated in LIMA Malaysia, there was an interest in the capabilities and whether what we were claiming were actually true. The naval chief of one country, who had attended the show remarked, “I don’t want to be on the other side of this missile, I want to be on the side of this missile.” Basically, when you have such a product, everyone wants it. We are in serious talks with three or four countries who want to buy this missile. In addition, we are in preliminary talks with another five or six countries.

Is there room for improvement in the delivery, both for ourselves as well as the export market?

Our users are content with the numbers they have currently. They still need and we still have several deliveries for them. But they have enough to take care of our country, currently. Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar had once suggested that even when we are producing to fulfil our users’ needs, we should keep five percent of the production line open for exports, provided we find a market.

Luckily or unluckily, we didn’t find a market, so everything was pumped in for our users. Now that we have found a market, our production lines are working in shifts, and we have the capabilities for expansion as the Integration centres were pl