United Arab Emirates to Purchase Soviet Cruise Missiles Through India as it Rearms For Next Iran War

The United Arab Emirates has been reported by multiple sources to be planning the procurement of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles from India, as part of a broader surge in defence procurements by the Arab state following hostilities with Iran from late February. The negotiations are reported to also include the potential purchase of India’s Akashteer air defence system. India requires Russia’s approval for the sale of the missile, with the BrahMos having been jointly developed by the two countries based very heavily on the Soviet technologies in the P-700 and P-800 cruise missiles. Official descriptions of the missile state that BrahMos is based on the P-800’s design, with India having had few technological inputs, but modifying its software for integration onto a wide range of launch platforms, in the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Many of the BrahMos’ defining characteristics originate in late Soviet era missile cruise programs. Its overall configuration, ramjet-powered propulsion concept, supersonic cruise profile, launch sequence, aerodynamic layout, and multi-platform launch philosophy all trace directly back to the P-800, with the two missiles having very little distinguishing them. Their propulsion system, for example, are almost identical, with the BrahMos thus having inherited the Soviet-developed ramjet approach that allows it to sustain speeds around Mach 2.8–3 throughout most of its flight. Developing a reliable supersonic ramjet cruise missile was one of the most difficult aspects of missile engineering, and this technology was already available from the P-800  program when the BrahMos project began.  

A primary difference between the BrahMos and the P-800 is that the former is not produced in Russia, and can thus be marketed to Western-aligned states such as the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines which are unable for political reasons to procure armaments from Russia directly. A leading reason for this is the threat of Western Bloc states imposing economic sanctions or taking other hostile steps, which deterred the Philippines from purchasing multiple types of Russian helicopter, and the United Arab Emirates from acquiring Russian fighters repeatedly in the 1990s. The BrahMos is expected to be supplied on ground-based launchers, and could provide an effective strike capability against targets across Iran to complement the use of subsonic air-launched cruise missiles like the SCALP. Although air launched variants of the BrahMos are in service in the Indian Air Force, equipping Su-30MKI fighters, the United Arab Emirates’ F-16E/F and Mirage 2000-5 single engine lightweight fighters lack the carrying capacity to integrate the large missiles.