Philippine military officials have indicated that they are interested in acquiring BrahMos
missile.
Philippine Army spokesperson Ramon Zagala has said: “ [The Philippine ] is interested
in acquiring this type of missile as it will strengthen our coastal defense operations.”
According to the Philippine News Agency (PNA), Ramon Zagala gave the statement during the
goodwill visit of two Indian warships to the Philippines.
Viewers may not that INS Sahyadri, a “Shivalik”-class guided missile frigate and the anti-submarine
corvette, the INS Kiltan visited the Philippines on 23 to 26 October.
During the visit, the officials led by Major General Reynaldo M. Aquino toured the INS
Sahyadri and were briefed about the Brahmos missile.
In this video Defense Updates why Chinese would be worried if the Philippines buy Brahmos
missile from India?
Let’s get started.
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China claims most of the South China Sea.
It said that it has "indisputable sovereignty" over the area.
Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan have disputed these claims.
The route is significant as about $5 trillion in trade through shipping passes each year.
Countries like the U.S, Japan, U.K, and India have no claims in the area and want ‘Freedom
of Navigation’ as per international maritime laws.
China has tried imposing a unilateral decision as per which all ships & aircraft navigating
in the area need to identify itself to the Chinese Navy.
China has built up military infrastructure in the islands which include reinforced aircraft
hangars at different parts of the disputed territories.
Not only this, YJ-12 Anti Ship Missile and HQ-9 Surface to Air missiles have been deployed.
China has tried to change the territorial status quo gradually, island-by-island instead
of trying to capture in one go.
For example, China first occupied the Paracel Islands in 1974 and then slowly expanded its
presence southward by attacking Vietnam’s islands in the Spratly chain in the 1980s.
This strategy known as salami slicing aims for the slow accumulation of small changes.
China has been using strong-arm tactics to threaten its smaller neighbors time and again
which include patrols by warships and aircraft close to their borders.
In 2013, the Philippines government lead by the then President Benigno Aquino III brought
an arbitration case against China in the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
On 12 July 2016, the tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines.
The landmark decision rejected China’s assertion that it enjoys historical rights over a huge
area of the South China Sea encompassed by a “nine-dash line.”
China had argued that the tribunal had no jurisdiction in the matter and rejected the
decision.
But by that time Rodrigo Duterte had become the new president and declared that he had
no intention of taking any steps based on the judgment.
He also openly favored aligning internationally with China and Russia, despite the existence
of a long-standing treaty of friendship with the United States.
But the underlining issue of Chinese hegemony remained and it seems Chinese eyes are now
set on another island.
In the first three months of 2019, the Philippine armed forces say they have observed 600 Chinese
naval vessels circling Pagasa island which the Philippines claims as part of its territory.
On Apr 4th events took a new turn when President Duterte stated,
“I’m trying to tell China, Pagasa is ours.
So let us be friends, but do not touch Pagasa Island and the rest.
Otherwise, things would be different.”
He insisted that “this is not a warning, this is just a word of advice to my friends,
because China is our friend”.
Duterte went on, “I will not plead or beg, but I’m just
telling you to lay off Pagasa, because I have soldiers there, If you touch it, that’s
another story.
Then I will tell my soldiers ‘prepare for suicide missions’.”
So, again the tensions between China and Philippine have risen.
The most credible threat to the Philippines is from the massive Chinese Navy which now
boasts of a very large number of surface combatants.
Any Chinese large scale invasion in all probability will come through the sea.
This is where the BrahMos missile comes into the picture.
It is considered to be one of the most potent anti-ship missiles is the Brahmos missile.
The BrahMos cruise missile is produced by India-based BrahMos Aerospace, set up in 1998,
and is a joint venture between India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO)
and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia.
Brahmos weighs in at 3000 kg or 6600 lbs, has a length of 8.4 m and a diameter of 0.6 m.
It has a solid-fuel rocket booster for the first stage and liquid-fueled ramjet for the
second stage.
Ramjet engine can power flight to sustained supersonic speeds.
It has no moving parts, like the compressors and turbines used in the turbofan engines
found on conventional jet planes.
They rely on the huge pressures created by fast airflow into the engine to ignite the
fuel and generate thrust.
Brahmos can be launched from aircraft, land installations and warships.
It is being tested for induction into submarines also.
A hypersonic version of the missile, BrahMos-II, is also presently under development with a
speed of Mach 7-8 to boost aerial fast strike capability.
It is expected to be ready for testing by 2020
BrahMos present a challenge to any surface ship.
The reason is its unique features.
1.
It has a supersonic speed of Mach 3 or 1 km per second providing very little time to intercept.
2.
BrahMos uses a 300 kg or 660 lbs Semi-Armor piercing warhead and also has very high Kinetic
energy since Kinetic energy is directly proportional to the square of velocity.
BrahMos actually has about 9 times the Kinetic Energy of conventional subsonic missiles like
Tomahawk.
The combined destructive force of massive warhead and kinetic energy is lethal for even
the biggest surface warships & bunkers.
Brahmas has been known to break ships in half in several tests.
3.
It can perform S maneuvers in the final stages of flight.
The missile basically doesn’t move in a straight line, making it very hard to intercept.
4.
There are lots of redundancies in the guidance system - right from the INS, GPS, GLONASS
and GAGAN making it hard to jam.
5.
The accuracy of around 1 square meter makes it apt for a precision strike on high-value
targets.
The best defense against the Brahmos missile is to destroy the launch platforms before
the missile could be fired.
The diverse launch platform makes this task difficult but not impossible.
Once the Brahmos gets launched successfully, it's a totally different ball game.
Even the Us Navy will find it very difficult to defend against a barrage of BrahMos.
Last year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Philippines, New Delhi and Manila
signed four agreements, including one to step up bilateral cooperation in the defense and
logistics sector.
At this stage, it is not clear if the Philippines’ interest in Brahmos missiles will actually
translate into reality.
But if a deal to acquire BrahMos goes through, it will act as deterrence for the Philippines
against China.
It is to be noted that the U.S. & the Philippines have a Mutual Defense Treaty which means that
if there is an 'armed attack’ on the Philippines, the U.S will come to its aid.
So, the Philippines just need to prevent a swift action by China and here the BrahMos
will be an excellent asset.