NEW DELHI – Russia unveils date for S400 Missile Defence System delivery toIndia as advance payment has been made in the multi billion dollars deal.

India will get the mobile S-400 Triumf air defence missile system (NATOreporting name SA-21 Growler) by 2023 and Russia has confirmed that itworking on the schedule after the issue of advance payment for the deliveryof the long-range surface-to-air weapons platform was settled. “Thecontract for S-400s will be implemented in compliance with the accordsreached and the documents signed.

The issue of making an advance payment under the contract has beenresolved. We are not commenting on the details,” Russia’s Federal Servicefor Military and Technical Cooperation told TASS news agency on Thursday inMoscow.

The statement came within 24 hours of Russian Embassy in IndiaMinister-Counsellor Roman Babushkin clarified that the missile system willreach the Indian armed forces in the next four years. “The term of thecontract’s implementation is well known: by 2023, these systems must bedelivered to India. Russia is ready to take all necessary efforts to followthe time parameters of this agreement.

We proceed from the fact that the contract will be implemented in full inaccordance with the interests of both countries and the accords reached. Weintend to strictly comply with them,” Babushkin said in New Delhi onWednesday.

S-400 Triumf is currently the most advanced long-rangeSurface-to-Air-Missile system in the world which can track targets 600kilometres away and hit them at a range of 400 kms at an altitude of even30 kms. The S-400 can engage targets independently as well as connect withother radars to receive data from them.