The jointly developed India-Russia BrahMos supersonic missile might find yet another buyer in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). After emerging as a popular choice among Southeast Asian states grappling with limited defense budgets and China’s expanding maritime assertiveness, the BrahMos missile might expand its footprint into West Asia. Reportedly, India is in talks with the UAE to export its frontline defense technologies, including the BrahMos supersonic missile and the Akashteer air defense command-and-control system.
The UAE’s decision to move toward the BrahMos missile system comes at an important juncture, as the recent Iran conflict has exposed the region’s evolving security challenges. That reinforces the case for more diverse defense cooperation.
The Iran War demonstrated potential gaps in the UAE’s deterrence capabilities. Despite fielding one of West Asia’s most sophisticated advanced air and missile defense networks – including THAAD, the MIM-104 Patriot, and the KM-SAM – Abu Dhabi’s long-range conventional precision strike options are limited, relying primarily on the Black Shaheen.
While it offers comparable precision-strike capability to BrahMos, the Black Shaheen is a subsonic missile that cruises at around Mach 0.8 and is primarily designed for land-attack missions. Apart from the Black Shaheen, the U.S.-supplied ATACMS, which Abu Dhabi operates, is a short-range ballistic missile again designed primarily for high-value precision land attack. The UAE currently lacks a supersonic precision-strike missile capable of engaging both maritime and land targets.
