In April, amid the escalation of the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines, India delivered the first batch of shore-based BrahMos anti-ship missiles to the Philippines. Two years ago, the Philippines spent $375 million to purchase this anti-ship missile from India to improve the Philippine military's anti-ship combat capabilities and respond to maritime crises, specifically to deal with the Chinese Navy, because at present, the Philippines also has a maritime dispute with China, and there is a risk of military conflict. The reason why the Philippines chose this anti-ship missile is undoubtedly because of its good combat effectiveness. "BrahMos" is a supersonic anti-ship missile jointly developed by India and Russia, and the penetration speed at the end is even close to the threshold of hypersonic anti-ship missiles, and the anti-ship capability is indeed strong enough.
In addition, India is also exporting this missile for the first time, and wants to use the Philippines to open up the international market and make "BrahMos" a star product of India's military industry going to sea, so India must have given the Philippines a preferential price. The performance seems to be good, coupled with the price and "conscience", the Philippines has a hot brain, and signed this "BrahMos" procurement contract with India. But can this missile really raise the anti-ship combat effectiveness of the Philippine army to a higher level? Does this missile really have the ability to deal with Chinese naval warships? Recently, the US media poured cold water on the Philippines, and the US media said in the report that the "BrahMos" missile is indeed "great", but in the hands of the Philippine army, it cannot exert combat effectiveness, because the Philippine army lacks one thing: the C4ISR system.
It is an integrated combat system, where C4 includes command, control, communications, and computers, while ISR refers to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. In other words, the C4ISR system is a combat system composed of a variety of things, and this combat system is large enough to act as the "central nervous system" of an army, and small enough to become a "combat power multiplier" of weapons and equipment. And the C4ISR system is the latter for the BrahMos anti-ship missile. The US media pointed out that only by having the C4ISR system and allowing this system to organize and coordinate the "BrahMos" to carry out anti-ship operations can this anti-ship missile have truly powerful combat effectiveness and posing a fatal threat and lethality to the opponent's warships.
But the "BrahMos" that the Philippines got may not have the C4ISR system, on the one hand, the "BrahMos" exported by India to the Philippines has shrunk in performance, plus India's own C4ISR system, is not very perfect, so this anti-ship missile, most of the time, does not integrate the C4ISR system. On the other hand, the Philippines does not have the conditions and capabilities to set up a C4ISR system on its own, and if it wants to have its own C4ISR system, it must have a satellite navigation and positioning system. Without the C4ISR system, the anti-ship combat capability of the BrahMos will be greatly reduced, and it is very difficult to know that an anti-ship missile wants to lock onto a surface ship that maneuvers at high speed at sea.
Let the "BrahMos", which does not have a C4ISR system, go on an anti-ship combat mission, which is almost equivalent to scratching a lottery ticket, and whether you can win the lottery or not depends on luck. When a weapon and equipment does not have absolute strength, but depends on luck, this weapon and equipment is actually a pile of scrap copper and rotten iron. The "BrahMos" in the hands of the Philippines is now such a situation. Of course, even if the Philippine army upgrades the "BrahMos" in the later stage and equips the "BrahMos" with the C4ISR system, it will be more difficult to break through the defense system of Chinese warships than to ascend to the sky.