Examine India's growing defence export capability through the case study of the BrahMos missile system.

Long the world's largest arms importer, India has begun reversing that position — defence exports touched a record ₹23,622 crore in FY 2024-25, a 12% rise over the previous year [1]. The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is the sharpest test case of how far this capability has actually travelled.

BrahMos as a marker of arrival

• In January 2022, BrahMos Aerospace signed a $375-million contract with the Philippines' Department of National Defence for a Shore-Based Anti-Ship Missile System — the missile's first export order [2].
• It exported a complete system — missiles, launchers, operator training and logistics support — not merely parts; deliveries and training are under way [4].
• It validates the co-development route (an India-Russia joint venture) as a practical path to globally competitive, high-end platforms.

Enablers behind the shift

• Policy architecture: liberalised licensing, with 1,762 export authorisations issued in FY 2024-25 and exports reaching around 80 countries [1]; the private sector now contributes the larger share [1].
• Defence diplomacy: arms sales are embedded in partnership frameworks — India-Philippines ties were elevated to a Strategic Partnership with a Plan of Action (2025-29) in August 2025 [3], and defence cooperation was reviewed again at the BRICS-sidelines bilateral in New Delhi [4].
• Strategic signalling: supplying an Indo-Pacific littoral state gives India a maritime-security footprint without direct confrontation.

Limits that remain

• Exports are still weighted towards components, ammunition and sub-systems, with few big-ticket platform sales [1].
• Critical sub-assemblies — engines, seekers, sensors — retain import dependence, capping true indigenisation.
• Buyers are concentrated among friendly states; export credit, offsets and lifecycle support ecosystems lag established suppliers.

BrahMos proves India can convert co-developed technology into a strategic export, but one flagship order is not yet an export industry. Sustaining it requires deeper R&D investment, defence lines of credit for partner states, and assured after-sales support — turning Aatmanirbhar Bharat from import substitution into durable export competitiveness.