‘Time to think about improving these missiles’: India, Russia want to upgrade BrahMos

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bilateral meeting on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two sides are looking to upgrade the BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile they jointly produce. This comes just ahead of the BRICS Summit to be held in New Delhi that will be attended by Putin as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“We are jointly producing the BrahMos missiles, and it is time to think about improving those missiles, adding some additional characteristics, making them more competitive in the market and more effective,” Peskov said during a conference call with journalists, as mentioned in a report in Bloomberg.

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The spokesperson also said that the ties have now matured beyond a buyer-seller relationship, and that Moscow is willing to share technology with New Delhi.

Russia is one of India’s key weapons suppliers even as it has diversified its purchases to include the US, France and Israel. Russia accounted for 40 per cent of India’s major arms imports between 2021 and 2025, as per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Even though it is a significant share, it is still a decrease from the 51 per cent in the previous five-year period.

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The Indian military operates Russian-made fighter jets and S-400 surface-to-air missile defence systems, which were also deployed during the Pakistan conflict.

Meanwhile, the leaders will meet on Friday, ahead of the BRICS Summit over the weekend, and are expected to discuss trade and economic cooperation, setting up new nuclear power plants, and the possible sale of Su-57 fighter aircraft to India is also on the agenda.