'Will you sell it to Pakistan?': When a Pak Army General asked BrahMos creator in Abu Dhabi

At an international arms expo in Abu Dhabi years ago, a Pakistani general approached BrahMos Aerospace Founder and former CEO Dr A Sivathanu Pillai with an unexpected question: Would India sell its prized BrahMos missile to Pakistan? The answer, as Pillai now recalls, was unequivocal — 'For Pakistan, it would for free of cost'.  

In an interview with CNN-News18, Pillai recalled this exchange that took place during a defence exhibition in Abu Dhabi. "When a Pakistani General asked me - why do you want to sell such a good missile? So I said that a good product has to be sold. Then he asked - 'will you sell it to Pakistan?'

"I told him, 'For Pakistan, it will be even free of cost.' So that has happened there," Pillai said, referring to the recent deployment of BrahMos missiles in Operation Sindoor.

On May 10, India launched several BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles at key Pakistani airbases in retaliation under Operation Sindoor. These included strikes on bunkers, hangars, and runways, with sources claiming accuracy levels close to one meter. BrahMos, a joint India-Russia venture, is now manufactured domestically and can be launched from land, sea, air, and submarine platforms.

Pillai described the moment as a significant validation of years of effort. "Operation Sindoor is a very remarkable day to us when the number of missiles – more than 15 – finished all the terrorist points and also disabled Pakistan, so they surrendered. This is a great moment for the development of BrahMos. We are very happy. I know how much hard work the team put in to realise that. This is a partnership between India and Russia."

On the missile’s origin, Pillai credited former President APJ Abdul Kalam for inspiring the vision behind India’s cruise missile capability. "Dr Abdul Kalam once said, 'We launched Agni as the sixth nation, PSLV as the seventh, and when we did the nuclear test again, we were the sixth nation. When will we be first?’” Pillai recalled. "He posed this question to me a number of times. Then he said—take a break, go to Harvard."

Pillai joined Harvard in 1991, at the peak of the Gulf War. It was during this time that he began closely studying the American use of Tomahawk cruise missiles in combat. "My attention turned towards the Gulf War. And finally, I found out the Tomahawk played a very crucial role there. To destroy the assets of the enemy, to disable them, you need a cruise missile," he said. 

He contacted Dr Kalam from the US and told him: "We need a cruise missile. Then he said, when you complete your course, let us discuss. So we did that."  

Following their discussions, Kalam advised Pillai to explore collaboration with Russia. "He suggested, ‘Why don’t you ask them? They may have the basic technology and help you.’ So I went to Russia and talked to them."

According to Pillai, the Russian side informed him that they had developed the world’s only supersonic engine for cruise missiles. “The Director General said, ‘If you use that engine, your missile will become a supersonic cruise missile.’ I was attracted by that. He showed me the engine, discussed the details, and we found that a number of tests had already been done and it was fully ready.”

However, the team soon realised that simply acquiring the engine wouldn’t be enough. "We needed a complete system — including the booster, guidance, and launch configurations,” Pillai said. "There was no point in taking one piece." A design team was formed, and the scope was expanded to cover ship- and land-based launch platforms. “We looked at all the platforms and then we made the design. That took a long time," he added.

BrahMos was initially conceived as an anti-ship missile and its name was derived from the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers. 

Explaining why Pakistan's defences, aided by Chinese systems, failed to intercept BrahMos, Pillai said, "This is supersonic. We operate it at 2.8 Mach. Tracking is difficult. The configuration is designed for low radar cross-section and high stealth. All of this was introduced into BrahMos."