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The supersonic BrahMos missile, developed by India and Russia, arrives in Vietnam in a billion-dollar deal with New Delhi. The package includes coastal batteries, pilot training, and future integration with Su-30MK2 fighters, creating a deterrence arc in front of the disputed islands with China in the South Sea.
Vietnam has signed a billion-dollar deal with India to receive the BrahMos, one of the fastest supersonic cruise missiles in the world. The contract, confirmed by Indian authorities at the end of May, reinforces the strategic partnership between the two Indo-Pacific countries and aims to protect Vietnam’s maritime borders in the tense South China Sea.
Estimated between 625 and 700 million dollars, the package includes coastal defense batteries, initial batches of missiles, pilot training, and long-term logistical support. As a future ambition, Vietnam is considering integrating the BrahMos with its Su-30MK2 fighters, which would enhance its strike power against naval and land targets.
What is the BrahMos and why it is intimidating
The BrahMos is the result of a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Russian company NPO Mashinostroyenia. It is derived from the Soviet P-800 Oniks missile, created during the Cold War to neutralize NATO aircraft carrier groups, and is considered one of the main assets of the Indian defense industry. It can be launched from land, naval, and air platforms, always focusing on precision attacks.
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What makes it feared is the combination of speed and stealth. The BrahMos flies between Mach 2.8 and Mach 3, nearly three times the speed of sound, and follows a low-altitude trajectory over the water to evade radars. This combination drastically reduces the reaction time of enemy defenses, making interception very difficult, exactly the kind of advantage Vietnam seeks for its waters.
The agreement between India and Vietnam and the coastal focus
The agreement was confirmed by the Indian Defense Secretary, Rajesh Kumar Singh, during the Shangri-La Dialogue at the end of May, and gained momentum during the recent visit of Vietnamese President, To Lam, to India. The deal, one of the largest defense contracts ever made by Hanoi, is valued at something between 629 and 700 million dollars and is part of the Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries.
In practice, the immediate focus for Vietnam is coastal defense batteries, with land-based anti-ship systems to protect maritime borders. This arsenal complements, and does not replace, the Russian Bastion system that the country already operates. Along with the missiles, the package includes operator training and logistical support, deepening India‘s presence in the Southeast Asian security ecosystem.
Su-30MK2: the ambition to take the BrahMos to the air
The integration of the BrahMos with the Su-30MK2 fighters is considered a next step, and not yet a finalized part of the contract. There is a technical obstacle: the Vietnamese Su-30MK2, manufactured in Komsomolsk-on-Amur with a focus on export and lower cost, have relatively old avionics from the early 2000s and differ from the Indian Su-30MKI, produced in Irkutsk with strong customization. Therefore, adaptation would require upgrades, using the Indian experience as a model.
If realized, this step would give Vietnam a leap in capability. With the BrahMos onboard, the Su-30MK2 could hit vessels hundreds of kilometers away at supersonic speed, applying the access denial concept, known as A2/AD. The declared goal is to operate, alongside India, a deterrence arc along the coast and near the disputed islands in the South China Sea, with pilot training and technology sharing, albeit with know-how limits.
India’s strategy: Act East, exports, and encirclement of China
According to information from Revista Fórum, the agreement fits into the Act East policy, with which India seeks to serve as a counterbalance to China‘s presence in the Indo-Pacific, connecting its northeast to ASEAN nations through projects like the Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan transport corridor.
In parallel, New Delhi boosts the Atmanirbhar Bharat doctrine of military self-sufficiency: the national component index of the BrahMos reached about 83% in 2025, with a target of 85% in 2026 and 90% to 95% in the following years.
Selling the system directly to regional allies helps India establish itself as one of the world’s largest arms exporters and bypass Western pressures and sanctions related to Russia, which approved the transfers. Vietnam follows the trail of the Philippines, the missile’s first international customer, in a contract worth about 375 million dollars from 2022, and Indonesia is negotiating a similar deal. For China, however, the multiplication of these systems feels like encirclement, which tends to further increase tension in the South Sea.
The arrival of the BrahMos in Vietnam shows how India is advancing on the Asian board and how the South China Sea is becoming an increasingly armed powder keg.
Tell us in the comments if you think this deterrence arc helps contain conflicts or if it just adds fuel to the dispute with China.
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