India To Acquire Batteries Of BrahMos Missiles For Naval Forces

The Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has cleared a INR 1,350 crore ($189.5 million) purchase of two Next Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries (NGMMCB) of BrahMos land-based missiles for its naval forces.

The approval was given by the MoD on August 8. The batteries will be fitted with supersonic BrahMos surface-to-surface cruise missile and deployed along the coast, Indian media reported. 

The land-based BrahMos missiles to be acquired will be an anti-ship missile fired from a land-based mobile autonomous launcher and, thus, a hybrid of the naval and Army variants. The missiles will get targeting inputs from Scanter radars acquired from Terma of Denmark and built in India in collaboration with Tata Advanced Systems' subsidiary firm Tata Nova.

The radars can track multiple simultaneous air and surface targets up to a range of 170 km. One radar can cover up to 98,000 sq km of situational awareness. Each BrahMos NGMMCB will comprise a single command post, two radar units and two firing units with three anti-ship missiles each.

Each battery will also have a reconnaissance vehicle and two vehicles carrying Man-Portable Air Defence Missile Systems (MANPADs) to provide short-range defence against aerial targets. The systems will be delivered within two years from the date of orders being placed.