Indian Army to buy 464 Main Battle Tanks from Russia worth billions of dollars
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NEW DELHI -Indian Army to buy 464 Main Battle Tanks from Russia worth billions of dollars, media has revealed.
Indian Army will soon have the T-90MS Main Battle Tank in its arsenal after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) gave the go-ahead for procuring 464 more tanks for almost Rs 13,448 crore ($1.93 billion). The T-90MS is the latest version of the tank with the Russian Army and the Indian Army's armoured regiments already have the T-90S.
Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) told news agency *TASS* that it will continue to help its Indian partners in producing T-90MS which have been rechristened Bhishma by the Indian Army.
"Russia is prepared for prolonging the license and building up the production of T-90 tanks in India in connection with the Indian government’s decision to purchase more tanks for its armed forces," the FSMTC told *TASS*.
Jane's Defence Weekly claimed that the CCS met in early April to give the green signal to buy 464 T-90MS tanks. The tanks will be assembled Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) in Avadi, Chennai from semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits from Uralvagonzavod, the Russian tank manufacturer. The tanks will arm 10 armoured regiments of the Army.
Jane's quoted unidentified officers as saying that the proposal to assemble the tanks from SKD kits was taken as the HVF Avadi was not producing the T-90S at the desired pace.
The HVF had in 2006-07 signed a contract to produce 1,000 T-90S tanks under licence from Russia by 2020. But the HVF has been able to supply only 350-400 T-90S till date.
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