India-Russian Missile Deal Cleared

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India has cleared a $5.5 billion mega deal for the purchase of S-400 air defense missile systems from Russia despite the threat of US sanctions. The Defense Acquisitions Council (DAC) approved the “minor deviations” in the S-400 deal that had emerged during the recently-concluded commercial negotiations with Russia.

According to indiatimes.com, India reportedly kicked off plans to acquire the S-400 missile systems in 2015. The missiles can detect, track and destroy hostile strategic bombers, stealth fighters, spy planes, missiles and drones at a range of up to 400km and altitude of 30km.

The inter-governmental agreement for the five S-400 systems was inked during the Modi-Putin summit at Goa in October 2016. Even as India and Russia were putting the finishing touches on the complex S-400 contract, Washington issued a warning to New Delhi against going ahead with the deal.

India and Russia have worked on a roadmap to get around the financial sanctions flowing out of the recent US law called CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act) that seeks to deter countries from buying Russian weapons.

Under the proposed deal, the Indian Air Force will get the first S-400 squadron, with its battle-management system of command posts and launchers, acquisition and engagement radars, and all-terrain transporter-erector-launcher vehicles, 24 months after the final contract is inked. All the five squadrons, with two firing units each, will come in 60 months.

Once India inducts the highly-mobile and automated S-400 systems, which have different kinds of supersonic and hypersonic missiles as well as long-range radars to track 100 to 300 targets simultaneously, they can be used to protect cities during war or vital installations like nuclear power plants.