BrahMos cruise missile production to go up three times

Kochi: India is set to treble the production of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile over the coming years, according to Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, chief executive officer and managing director of BrahMos Aerospace. 

"We plan to increase the production of the missile system by 300 per cent in the next two years," he told reporters on Friday. Dr. Pillai, who is also the chief controller of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), noted that the Indian defence services required more numbers of the missile. BrahMos has already been inducted into the Indian Navy.

Dr. Pillai, who presided at an industry-NPOL (Naval Physical Oceanographic Laboratory) interface, the first of its kind, here on Friday, urged private industry to partner with the defence services.

According to Dr. Pillai, there were plans for exporting the missile, as well. He pointed out that the country had a huge potential for exporting defence products, particularly to Asian countries.

Talking about public-private partnership in the defence sector, Dr Pillai said that DRDO and other defence public sector units had boosted their partnership with private sector industries in the recent years. Defence outsourcing was also set to get a boost in the coming years, in particular.

"Gone are the days when we partnered with only public sector undertakings," he said. "Whoever is capable of meeting our needs, whether public or private, will be picked up."

According to Dr Pillai, performance and the capability to deliver the goods on time were to be the main criteria. The reason the Government had taken a policy decision to partner with private industry was mainly because Indian industry was performing very well now and was capable of delivering high quality supplies on time.

He told industrialists gathered here that the Indian Navy was going to build a number of ships and submarines in the coming years, which was a wonderful opportunity for the private sector.