MOSCOW – Russia hopes to finalize two major defense deals with India byyear’s end, with first deliveries of the S-400 air defense systempotentially taking place in 2020, a Russian defense official has said.
India defied US demands to drop the S-400 deal in favour of US weaponry,selecting the defense system to protect its skies in June following anagreement on technical and economic specifications earlier this year. TheS-400 is capable of destroying aerial targets at an extremely long range ofup to 400km (almost 250 miles).
A separate deal will see the Indian Navy buy a further threeTalwar-class/Project 11356 frigates as part of the service’s modernizationprogram.
“As for the S-400, we have already prepared everything to sign thiscontract. All the main technical and commercial aspects have been agreedupon, and I think that we are close to making this happen. We hope to signboth contracts with our Indian partners by the end of the year,” Directorof the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC)Dmitry Shugaev told RIA Novosti.
Viewing India as a “strategic partner,” Shugaev confirmed that Moscow hadadhered to New Delhi’s request to lower the price tag for five S-400 Triumfsystems, which previous reports had pegged at $6.5 billion.
“India is a strategic partner for us, so we took into account the wishes ofour partners, and made certain concessions,” Shugaev said, adding thatIndia could receive first deliveries of the system as early as 2020 “if wesign the deal by the end of this year.”
Greenlighting the purchase in June, the Indian government faced offwarnings from the US to drop the deal with the Russians or face potentialsanctions though Washington’s CAATSA (Countering America’s AdversariesThrough Sanctions Act).
Undeterred by the threats, India’s Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saidat the time: “In all our engagements with the US, we have clearly explainedhow India and Russia’s defence cooperation has been going on for a longtime and that it is a time-tested relationship. We have mentioned thatCAATSA cannot impact the India-Russia defence cooperation.”
In May, US House Armed Services Committee chairman Mac Thornberry warnedagainst governments choosing Russian tech over American, saying that theacquisition of S-400 technology would “limit” the degree with which theUnited States would “feel comfortable in bringing additional technologyinto whatever country we are talking about.”
Another ally to fall out with the US over S-400 procurement has beenTurkey, who are on course to receive the first parts of their system in2019. US lawmakers and fellow NATO members have expressed fears thatAnkara’s possession of both the S-400 and the F-35, made by LockheedMartin, might expose the state-of-the-art fifth-generation jet’sadvantages, or lack of thereof, to allies and “known foes.”