Can India sell BrahMos to Pakistan, asked Pak army general; missile creator replied would be delivered 'free of cost'

In the high-stakes world of missile development and international defence expos, one might not expect to find much room for humour. But Dr Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai, revered as the “father of BrahMos”, recently offered a rare moment of levity in a podcast, recounting a cheeky encounter with a Pakistani army general.

The exchange reportedly occurred at a defence exhibition in Dubai. Pillai said, that a senior Pakistani officer sidled up to him and posed the question: Would India consider selling its formidable BrahMos missile to Pakistan?

Pillai replied, “For Pakistan, it would be free of cost.”

The missile in question

The BrahMos is not your average projectile. Jointly developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya, it is capable of flying at speeds between Mach 2.8 and Mach 3.5.

BrahMos is the fastest supersonic missile in the world, a significant advantage over Pakistan’s Babur or Ra’ad missiles, both of which are subsonic. With a range that now varies between 290 and 800 kilometres, and talk of future variants reaching 1,500 kilometres, the missile is versatile, lethal, and, as it turns out, not for sale for Pakistan.

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Equipped with “fire-and-forget” navigation systems, low radar visibility, and the flexibility to be launched from land, sea, air, and submarines, the BrahMos offers a degree of strategic mobility and accuracy that few regional adversaries can match. Its circular error probable (CEP) of 1–2 metres makes it a precision instrument of deterrence and power projection.

The joke with an edge

The timing of this story’s resurfacing is especially relevant given India’s increased deployment of BrahMos missiles, including during Operation Sindoor, in which Indian forces targeted terror camps and infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the Pahalgam terror attack.

With support from private industry, DRDO is actively working to shift production and development into Indian hands, ensuring greater autonomy in upgrades and deployment.