02-17-2010, 06:01 PM
[size="6"]BrahMos To Export Cruise Missile Systems: CEO[/size]
NEW DELHI - India, which has built a supersonic cruise missile jointly with Russia, is holding talks with at least four countries to sell the weapons system, a senior Indian official said Feb. 16.
BrahMos Aerospace, a 50-50 tie-up with Russia worth $10 billion, needs the approval of both governments to export the weapon, which its makers claim is the world's fastest cruise missile. Each costs up to $3 million.
"We are in the process of getting the necessary permission [for sales]," A. Sivathanu Pillai, CEO of BrahMos Aerospace, said on the sidelines of Defexpo 2010.
A senior company executive, who asked not to be named, said "serious negotiations" were underway with South Africa, Brazil and Chile for a maritime version of the missile, while Indonesia has been offered a land-based BrahMos.
The joint venture stipulates the missile cannot be sold to "unfriendly countries," the joint venture's marketing chief, Praveen Pathak, said.
The missile can fly at a speed of 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) a second.
"We have no competition for the next 10 to 15 years from American or the French makers of cruise missiles as the BrahMos is the fastest and most cost-effective system ever to be built," Pillai said.
The BrahMos carries a 440-pound (200-kilogram) conventional warhead and has a range of 175 miles (280 kilometers). Indian and Russian experts started development work on the missile in 2001.
The missile, which gets its name from the rivers of India's Brahmaputra and Russia's Moscova, was inducted into the Indian military in 2007 as a frontline weapons system.
NEW DELHI - India, which has built a supersonic cruise missile jointly with Russia, is holding talks with at least four countries to sell the weapons system, a senior Indian official said Feb. 16.
BrahMos Aerospace, a 50-50 tie-up with Russia worth $10 billion, needs the approval of both governments to export the weapon, which its makers claim is the world's fastest cruise missile. Each costs up to $3 million.
"We are in the process of getting the necessary permission [for sales]," A. Sivathanu Pillai, CEO of BrahMos Aerospace, said on the sidelines of Defexpo 2010.
A senior company executive, who asked not to be named, said "serious negotiations" were underway with South Africa, Brazil and Chile for a maritime version of the missile, while Indonesia has been offered a land-based BrahMos.
The joint venture stipulates the missile cannot be sold to "unfriendly countries," the joint venture's marketing chief, Praveen Pathak, said.
The missile can fly at a speed of 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) a second.
"We have no competition for the next 10 to 15 years from American or the French makers of cruise missiles as the BrahMos is the fastest and most cost-effective system ever to be built," Pillai said.
The BrahMos carries a 440-pound (200-kilogram) conventional warhead and has a range of 175 miles (280 kilometers). Indian and Russian experts started development work on the missile in 2001.
The missile, which gets its name from the rivers of India's Brahmaputra and Russia's Moscova, was inducted into the Indian military in 2007 as a frontline weapons system.