India to add more Russian multi-role fighters

With new agreements in the works and a way to skirt US sanctions, the Kremlin is hoping to grow its backlog of major arms deals with India, which currently stands at an impressive US$14 billion.

New Delhi is expected to cement several arms deals with Moscow at the next session of the Indo-Russian intergovernmental commission on military industrial cooperation, to be held in October, AINonline reported.

These would include a contract on 18 additional kits for the Sukhoi Su-30MKI heavyweight multirole fighter for assembly at HAL’s Nasik plant. This would bring the grand total of such aircraft procured since 1999 to 240.


Additionally, the Indian Air Force would receive “over 20” used MiG-29 lightweight interceptors from the Russian Air and Space Force for their subsequent conversion into Mig-29UPG multirole aircraft, the report said.

Apart from the fighters, New Delhi is seeking to procure about 1,000 air-to-air missiles. The local media has specifically reported on 300 R-73E and 400 RVV-AE (exportable R-77) weapons developed by the Vympel design bureau.

Reports also emerged recently concerning the procurement of R-27s worth US$217 million. The most recent R-27 purchase was in 2013, when around 400 were bought from Ukraine, where a production line is located.

Since then, Russia’s Tactical Missile Corporation (TRV) has mastered production of the R-27 and improved R-73, sometimes referred to as the R-74, at its own facilities.

It is interesting to note that the decision to purchase Russian missiles comes after an earlier announcement that India would test MBDA missiles on the Su-30MKI. However, no request for permission to do this was filed with Moscow by India, the report said.

New Delhi is also looking to set up local production of the Igla-S shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile in a manner similar to the recently agreed deal for Kalashnikov assault rifles.

This burst of new purchases in Russia is at least partially due to the fact that Moscow and New Delhi have recently worked out a new set of payment methods and procedures that enables arms deals between them within the conditions of the newly introduced US sanctions such as CAATSA.

In July, Dmitri Shugayev, who heads FSVTS, Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, told journalists that the two engineered a scheme under which they can make transactions in a way that evades sanctions imposed by Washington, the report said.

A mutually agreed set of payment methods and mechanisms was developed specifically for the S-400 contract, involving the national banking systems and special-purpose vehicles.

Yet another major development in relations between the two nations has been the establishment of a joint after-sales support group under the umbrella of the Indo-Russian intergovernmental commission on military-industrial cooperation.

“We agreed to expedite entering the interstate agreement on joint production of spare parts and expendables on Indian soil,” FSVTS deputy head Vladimir Drozhzhov told AINonline.

 asiatimes