In a major boost to the Indian Navy’s firepower and the government’s push for self-reliance in defence manufacturing, the Ministry of Defence signed a Rs 661.50 crore contract with BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited (BAPL) on Tuesday for the procurement of BrahMos fire control systems and launchers for Indian Navy ships.
The contract was signed in New Delhi in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh. According to the Defence Ministry’s statement, the procurement will be executed under the ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’ category — Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured — which is the topmost priority category under the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020.
A key feature of the deal is its strong domestic footprint. The systems will carry a minimum of 68 per cent indigenous content, and the ministry said the contract will encourage the participation of Indian industries, including micro, small and medium enterprises, in the defence manufacturing ecosystem. It is also expected to generate employment over a period of three years.
The BrahMos is the Navy’s primary surface-to-surface missile system for maritime strike operations and is deployed on the service’s frontline warships. Capable of targeting both land and sea targets from extended ranges with pinpoint accuracy, the missile flies at supersonic speeds of up to 2.8 Mach, with a range of around 290 km — while its extended-range variants can strike beyond 400 km.
The Defence Ministry described the contract as a “critical milestone” in the indigenisation of advanced military technology. The signing follows the Defence Acquisition Council’s approval in August 2025 for additional BrahMos systems, which was linked to the Navy’s Shivalik-class ships and the Next Generation Missile Vessels currently in the pipeline.
For the Navy, the deal sharpens the strike teeth of its frontline fleet at a time when the service is steadily expanding its operational footprint across the Indian Ocean region. The new fire control systems and launchers will also improve commonality across ships carrying the BrahMos, simplifying training, maintenance and logistics for naval engineers and weapons crews.
For the wider Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat push, it adds another major indigenous-content contract to a defence order book that has been tilting decisively toward home-grown platforms over the past several years — a trend that defence officials say is only gathering pace.
