DRDO avers India's defence exports to surge as BrahMos missiles impressed many nations

Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman Dr G Sateesh Reddy has stated that India is building more defence systems with export potential as our indigenously made surface-to-air missiles have gained the interest of many nations. Dr Reddy's statement comes just a day after India sealed a $375 million deal with the Phillippines as the latter will be procuring BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles for its navy. With a range of 290-km, BrahMos missiles have been jointly developed by India's BrahMos Aerospace and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia.

India will increase the export of indigenously developed technologies: Dr Reddy

Speaking to news agency ANI, Dr Reddy said, "Surface to air missile Akash, Astra missile, anti-tank missiles, radars, torpedoes have gained the interest of various nations. Lot more systems are being developed which are advanced technology in nature and have export potential". Adding that the export of India's indigenously made technologies will increase, he said-

In the coming years, we will have a lot of exports from India of the technologies developed here.

Dr Reddy on India's deal with the Phillippines

Since the deal would mark the first export of the BrahMos missile system, Dr Reddy called it a 'major development' and added that it is just the beginning as many more export orders would follow. Talking about the BrahMos venture, he told ANI, "BrahMos is a giant venture of DRDO. The giant venture has developed the supersonic cruise missile 'BrahMos'. It has been inducted into the Indian Armed Forces". Moreover, he also underlined Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to indigenously develop more advanced technologies. "PM Modi has been setting goals on developing very advanced technologies and systems and we should be exporting a lot to the world", Dr. Reddy told ANI. 

Besides the BrahMos supersonic missile, DRDO has also developed the hypersonic missile which can cover a range of 450 – 600 km at Mach 7 velocity as opposed to the 2.8-3 Mach speed of the former.

Image: ANI