India, Indonesia near BrahMos deal; cost, number of units to be finalised

India and Indonesia are close to an agreement on the supply of the BrahMos cruise missile system

Published on: Mar 10, 2026, 05:54:42 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar, New Delhi

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India and Indonesia are close to an agreement on the supply of the BrahMos cruise missile system, though crucial elements such as the pricing and number of batteries to be supplied remain to be finalised, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

If the deal goes ahead, Indonesia will be the second foreign customer of the missile.

If the deal goes ahead, Indonesia will be only the second foreign customer for the BrahMos missile jointly developed by India and Russia. India signed a deal worth almost $375 million in January 2022 to equip the Philippine Marines with three batteries of the missiles.

The people cited above said, on condition of anonymity, that the BrahMos deal was discussed during Indonesian defence minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin’s visit to India last November and President Prabowo Subianto’s state visit to India in January 2025, when he was the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations.

“Discussions are continuing on crucial issues such as the cost, the number of units and transfer of technology, which is a key issue for Indonesia,” one of the people said.

There was no immediate word from Indian officials on the proposed deal. Indonesian defence ministry spokesperson Rico Ricardo Sirait told Reuters on Monday that an agreement between the two sides on the BrahMos missile system was “part of the modernisation of military hardware and defence capabilities, especially in the maritime sector”. Rico’s statement appeared to indicate that the Indonesian side is interested in the naval variant of the BrahMos missile.

Indonesian Navy chief Admiral Muhammad Ali visited BrahMos Aerospace, the manufacturer of the missile, during a visit to India in January 2025. A team from BrahMos Aerospace also visited the state-run PT PAL shipyard in Surabaya as far back as 2018 to assess the fitting of the missile on Indonesian warships. Besides the BrahMos, India has offered to supply coastal defence radars and marine grade steel to Indonesia, and to service Russian-made Su-30 combat jets flown by the Indonesian Air Force.

The deal with Indonesia for the BrahMos missile is expected to be around $450 million, as previously reported by HT. India used the missile effectively against Pakistan during the four-day military confrontation in May 2025 under Operation Sindoor.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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