India has decided to sell the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile to the Philippines amid border tensions with China due to its aggressive posture along the Line of Actual Control, a report in the Hindustan Times said.
The deal will be signed next year when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.
According to the information available, the meeting is likely to take place in February 2021 and the Philippines will become the first country to get this missile system developed as a joint venture between India and Russia.
China for a long time has been very aggressive in the South China Sea and has made claims to territories that compromise the sovereignty of the Philippines and other nations in Southeast Asia like Malaysia and Indonesia.
BrahMos has a range of 290 kilometers, and it has already been inducted by the Indian Army, Navy, and the Air Force in large numbers.
For a long time, India has been working to increase the level of indigenous systems in the BrahMos missile. In the last few months that saw India conduct several missile tests, including the hypersonic missile, the quest to have an indigenous seeker is being worked on to bring down its cost.
India has conducted at least three tests of the BraMos missile over the last two months.
However, what should worry China is that the Philippines will get the missile which has a range of around 500 km that could seriously compromise Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships.
The missiles which the Philippines Army would receive from India will be its first Land Based Missile System Battery, and have been selected after extensive trials.