The story so far: Strengthening the Indian Navy’s defence arsenal, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on February 22 cleared the ₹19,000-crore acquisition of 200 BrahMos Extended Range (ER) supersonic cruise missiles for warships. The formal signing of the contract between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Indo-Russian company BrahMos Aerospace is expected to be held on March 5, government sources told The Hindu Businessline.
In an interview with news agency ANI, Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said that the BrahMos will be the Navy’s primary surface-to-surface missile as it has “enhanced range, capabilities, range and so on.”
“That is why we are replacing all old missiles with this... and we are installing the BrahMos. Now, we have the expertise to install it in a very quick time,” said Admiral Kumar, adding that as it was a ‘Made in India’ missile, there was no dependency on foreign companies to assemble, repair and maintain the missiles. His comments were made on the sidelines of the Defence Expo held in Pune on February 26.
