UAE in Talks to Buy Indian Defence Equipment, Including BrahMos Missile

The talks also include the potential sale of Akashteer, India’s automated air-defence command-and-control system, according to a Reuters report from June 22.

No deal has been signed and discussions remain in the early stages, but analysts say a UAE order would carry symbolic and strategic weight for India as it tries to shift from being one of the world’s biggest arms buyers to a more serious exporter of weapons and defence equipment.

BrahMos, jointly developed by India and Russia, is a supersonic precision cruise missile that can launch from land, sea and air and travel up to three times the speed of sound, or Mach 3.

“For India, this is a big confidence booster. It accelerates the shift from being a top arms buyer to a growing exporter, strengthens ties with a key Gulf partner [beyond just oil and trade] and shows the world that Indian systems are combat-proven and worth buying,” A.B. Shivane, a former lieutenant general in the Indian army, told This Week in Asia.

Shivane said the UAE appeared interested in a wider basket of Indian equipment, including Akash surface-to-air missiles for layered defence, Pinaka rocket systems and associated ammunition, precision-guided munitions and drones or unmanned aerial vehicles, possibly for naval or coastal defence.