India ramps up missile sales in Indo-Pacific as China’s assertiveness alarms neighbors

India is set to supply Indonesia with BrahMos and Astra missiles, the country’s third deal in the Indo-Pacific region, underscoring New Delhi’s rise as a defense supplier in the region amid growing concerns about China’s assertiveness.

The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile with anti-ship capabilities is attracting strong interest from buyers in the Indo-Pacific region as countries with limited naval forces need to protect disputed areas in the South China Sea, experts told CNBC.

“BrahMos and air-to-air missiles are new areas of cooperation (with Indonesia),” an Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday, adding that BrahMos is an important area of ​​cooperation and commercial terms are yet to be decided between the two countries.

Simon Wezemann, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s arms transfer program, told CNBC that buyers are particularly interested in an anti-ship version of the BrahMos, which has a range of 300 kilometers, is ultra-fast and difficult to intercept.

This is “one of the largest and fastest products currently available on the market,” he added. BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India’s Defense Research and Development Organization and Russia’s NPO Manostroyenia.

The only other missile similar to BrahMos is China’s YJ-12, Douglas Barry, a senior military aerospace fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told CNBC in an email.

The Philippines became the first buyer of Brahmos in 2022. In May, India’s defense secretary said the country had signed a deal to sell missiles to Vietnam, Reuters reported. India’s Ministry of Defense and Brahmos Aerospace did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Both of these agreements are motivated by a “recognition of China’s growing threat in the South China Sea,” Defense Strategic Studies Institute senior fellow Colin Koh told CNBC.

Koh added that while Indonesia does not consider China a major security threat, it has disagreements with Beijing over “claims in the North Natuna Sea.”

On Monday, the Chinese Navy test-fired a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean, a move expected to encourage regional countries to deepen mutual defense ties as China’s military power grows.

Experts say this gives India scope to expand its defense exports in the region as it is not affiliated with any major power hub and is not seen as a regional security threat but as a trading provider.

Strengthening defense partnerships among Indo-Pacific countries is part of efforts to address the “China threat,” Farwa Aamer, director of the South Asia Initiative at the Asian Social Policy Institute, told CNBC.

He added that these countries also want to build a defense relationship that is “less dependent” on the US, all of which make India a viable defense partner and “the BrahMos missile system lucrative.”

But experts said that while the BrahMos deal helps India gather regional partners to counter China, it does little to move the needle on New Delhi’s ambitions to become a significant defense exporter.

SIPRI’s Wezeman said the BrahMos sale was “very strong tangible evidence of India’s success in the world of arms producers and exporters,” but added that India’s defense exports have had limited success when it comes to large contracts.

He added that an order for India’s Tejas fighter jets and frigates is “much more valuable than an order for a few BrahMos.”

Although exports have increased over the past decade, they amounted to only 384 billion rupees ($4 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2026. This is just over 1% of the $331 billion in total arms sales by the United States, the world’s largest arms supplier.

According to SIPRI’s key arms transfer data for 2021-2025, India is not among the world’s top 25 arms exporters, which also includes China at number 5 and South Korea at number 9.

However, according to SIPRI’s 2026 Yearbook, New Delhi is the world’s fifth largest military spender and also the second largest arms importer with a share of over 8%.