Search the Internet           Tips

India, Russia sign defence accord

The single largest defence pact, estimated to be in the range of three billion dollars, will enhance India's defence capabilities and meet its long-term requirements.

The agreements signalled a new era in Indo-Russian defence ties, which are poised to enter a phase that will focus on joint defence production, shifting away from the existing buyer-seller relationship.

Defence Minister George Fernandes and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov also inked an umbrella agreement for the setting up of an intra-governmental commission on military-technical co-operation.

Until now, defence co-operation between the two countries was at the joint working group level. The commission will be co-chaired by Fernandes and Klebanov.

The agreement for the purchase of the T-90 tanks was signed by joint secretary (ordnance) Ranjit Issar and the Deputy Director General of Rosvooruzheniye, Russia's state owned arms manufacturer. The tanks will substantially increase India's capabilities to carry out armoured thrusts.

The tank, reported to cost over two million dollars each, has underdone desert trials in Rajasthan and will equip the Indian army to meet the challenge from across the border. In December 1998, the cabinet committee on security had taken the decision to acquire 124 fully built tanks and 186 in semi-knocked down and completely knocked down condition.

The SU-30 MKI, which will go in for licensed production in India, will be a multi-role fighter with much more improved avionics. The Indian Air Force currently possesses SU-30s, which have aerodynamics that are upfront, air defence capability and radars. However, what India requires is multi-role capability and thrust vectoring for additional manoeuvring.

India and Russia have an ongoing deal for the purchase of 40 SU-30s, which have been designed in the genre of the current generation of multi-role fighter aircraft with awesome performance. While one squadron is already with the IAF, another ten warplanes are expected by 2001-end.

The licensed production of the fighter plane in India marks a new thrust in Indo-Russian defence co-operation with Moscow willing to go beyond being just a seller by transferring licence and technological documentation to manufacture the fighter aircraft in India.

Fernandes and Klebanov, who signed the SU-30 licensed production deal, also initialled the agreement on Admiral Gorshkov, the 45,000-tonne vessel, which was withdrawn from the Russian Northern Fleet in 1995 and is being given as a 'gift' to India.

However, refitting and upgrading the ship, before it is delivered from its base in Rosta shipyard, is expected to cost India about $700 to $800 million. The modifications to the aircraft carrier, which can hold 24 planes, is likely to take about three years. The ship suffered a major fire in its engine room in 1994, but that has been repaired.

Besides, India will also have to buy the warplanes and helicopters that it intends to keep on the aircraft carrier, two squadrons of MiG-29K and six Kamov-31 helicopters.

The Admiral Gorshkov proposal has been pending since a Memorandum of Understanding was signed during Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov's visit to India in December, 1998.

After the de-commissioning of the INS Vikrant, India has been left with just one aircraft carrier INS Viraat, which is currently undergoing an upgrade in Bombay. The indigenous project to build an air defence ship is underway at Cochin, but the ship is not likely to be inducted before the end of the decade.

Admiral Gorshkov is bound to give more teeth to the Indian Navy on the western and eastern seaboards.

Besides this, Klebanov and principal secretary to the prime minister and national security advisor Brajesh Mishra signed an agreement for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

UNI

ALSO SEE
Price is the only problem with Russian MBTs

The Putin visit: The full coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report