Long considered among the top importing nations for defense hardware, India is now looking to access the fast-growing international market for cruise missiles, considered a lethally efficient weapon.

US forces used almost 1,000 such missiles when they first entered Iraq in 2003, and the total worldwide market is expected to be more than US$10 billion in the next decade. An inventory of more than 80,000 such missiles is estimated already to exist around the world. Indian Defense Minister A K Anthony has said

New Delhi is holding talks with "some countries" for the sale of cruise missiles.

An Indian version of the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos has been developed in collaboration with longtime defense partner Russia. The ground-hugging BrahMos, with a 290-kilometer strike range, are believed to be similar to the US Tomahawk cruise missiles widely used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike ballistic missiles, cruise missiles do not leave the atmosphere and are powered and guided throughout their flight path.

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