NEW DELHI -Indian Army to buy 464 Main Battle Tanks from Russia worthbillions of dollars, media has revealed.
Indian Army will soon have the T-90MS Main Battle Tank in its arsenalafter the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) gave the go-ahead forprocuring 464 more tanks for almost Rs 13,448 crore ($1.93 billion). TheT-90MS is the latest version of the tank with the Russian Army and theIndian Army’s armoured regiments already have the T-90S.
Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) toldnews agency *TASS* that it will continue to help its Indian partners inproducing T-90MS which have been rechristened Bhishma by the Indian Army.
“Russia is prepared for prolonging the license and building up theproduction of T-90 tanks in India in connection with the Indiangovernment’s decision to purchase more tanks for its armed forces,” theFSMTC told *TASS*.
Jane’s Defence Weekly claimed that the CCS met in early April to give thegreen signal to buy 464 T-90MS tanks. The tanks will be assembled HeavyVehicles Factory (HVF) in Avadi, Chennai from semi-knocked-down (SKD) kitsfrom Uralvagonzavod, the Russian tank manufacturer. The tanks will arm 10armoured regiments of the Army.
Read Top Stories
Jane’s quoted unidentified officers as saying that the proposal to assemblethe tanks from SKD kits was taken as the HVF Avadi was not producing theT-90S at the desired pace.
The HVF had in 2006-07 signed a contract to produce 1,000 T-90S tanks underlicence from Russia by 2020. But the HVF has been able to supply only350-400 T-90S till date.
Source:link
