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Showing posts with the label Russia- India defence cooperation

How long will Moscow continue to hold on to India to sell it's weapon systems

India Russia Joint Military exercise (Image credits- Sputnik News) India remains the world's largest importer of weapon systems, it's major chunk coming from Russia. Russia has remained India's largest defence partner. But over the years, India has diversified it's sources to include Israel, USA and France. But even today Russia remains the largest weapons seller to India. Russia has also been trying to diversify it's clientele, but no market can replace the amount of weapon sale that India can and will buy. As India moves to indiginisation of weapon systems, how long Russia will be able to hold on? Russia & India Report argues that it will take India some more decades until it's weapons manufacturing industry matures to a satisfactory level for them to absorb key technologies and deliver world class weapon systems, the time which gives Russia breathing space provided Russia plays their cards correctly. ( The entire article can be read here )  

Does India really need Russia’s ‘Backfire’ bomber? ( Source- Russia & India Report)

Russian Air Force TU-22 M Bomber ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Dmitriy Pichugin) Source- Russia & India Report Author- Rakesh Krishnan Simha The Indian Air Force has a variety of specialised fighters, ground attack jets and multirole aircraft in its fleet, but a strategic bomber has never figured in its war plans. According to the Russian wire service Interfax, that could change as India’s Ministry of Defence has reportedly sought to buy four Tupolev Tu-22M3 maritime strike bombers from Russia. This isn’t the first time reports have surfaced that India is interested in acquiring this fearsome Cold Warrior – codenamed Backfire by NATO. According to the Federation of American scientists, “In December 1999 it was announced that India would lease four Tu-22M3 Backfire bombers, with the aircraft slated to arrive in India as early as June 2000.” They never did. However, the first time the Backfire was set to fly into the subcontinent was in mid-1971 when Russ

Indian military ships arrive in Vladivostok on unofficial visit ( Source- Russia & India Report / Author- Sputnik)

Image credits- Indian Navy Source- Russia & India Report Author- Sputnik The Indian military ships have arrived in the Russia’s Far East city of Vladivostok on an unofficial visit, where they will be staying for four days, the Russian Eastern Military District's press service said Monday. "Today a group of ships of the Indian Navy arrived in Vladivostok on an unofficial visit," district's spokesman Igor Maiborodov said. Indian sailors were met with repeated salute by the Pacific Fleet command, the honor guard company and orchestra of the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet. The sides pointed out the increased communications between the countries’ fleets. The Indian delegation is set to lay wreathes to the eternal flame at the memorial complex of Military Honor of Pacific Fleet, participate in sport competitions with their Russian counterparts and take part in a number of cultural events. First published by Sputnik . © RUSSIA &am

Hypersonic BrahMos prototype likely in 2024 ( Source- Russia & India Report / Author- TASS)

Image credits- Brahmos Source- Russia & India Report Author- TASS Work to develop a hypersonic version of the joint Russian-Indian BrahMos missile will begin around the year 2022, and a prototype is likely to be ready in 2024, TASS learned from Praveen Pathak, marketing director of the BrahMos Aerospace company. “This will be a completely different missile, with a flight speed of about Mach 6,” Pathak told TASS at the KADEX-2016 Exhibition. Over the next three to four years, the company is planning to “speed up” the current supersonic version to Mach 4, he said. Pathak said the preliminary design is now being developed. In Russia and India, they are simultaneously considering different options for the shape of the future missile. This stage, according to the BrahMos Aerospace representative, will require “at least five or six years” to complete, and then, roughly in 2022, the development work will begin, and two years hence – the first “iron” sample should app

Conflicting reports on Russian sale of S-400 to India ( Source- Russia & India Report / Author- RT.COM)

S-400 Triumf ( Credits- Wikimedia Commons / Соколрус) Source- Russia & India Report Author- RT.COM Russia and India are yet to sign a contract for the supply of advanced S-400 air defence systems, a senior Russian official said in response to an Indian claim, which said the deal was already signed. “The contract has not been signed yet,” the head of Russian state-owned technology giant Rostec Sergey Chemezov said. Earlier Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State for Defence Production of India, said the deal was already signed. Singh is attending an international security forum in Moscow. Russia's Defence Ministry has not yet commented on the reports. The S-400 is the latest and most advanced of the long-range surface-to-air missiles produced by Russia. The Russian military is the only operator of the system, but China and India are expected to be the first foreign nations to receive it. Media reports in 2015 said that India wants to buy five S-40

Russian weapons supplies in Asia ( Source- Russia & India Report / Authors- Nikolay Litovkin, Nadezhda Ustinova, RIR)

SU-35 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Aleksandr Markin) Source- Russia & India Report Authors- Nikolay Litovkin , Nadezhda Ustinova , RIR Asian countries, particularly China and India, are Russia’s top partners in the sphere of defence cooperation, officials have repeatedly stated. At the moment, there are contracts in place with a number of countries in the region for the supply of military fighter aircraft, air defence systems, submarines, and other weapons. The Asian continent is the global leader in terms of growth in defence spending today, and a huge market for arms exports has opened up in these countries. “Interest in Asian countries can be explained by the fact that their armed forces are familiar with our weapons, and the Syrian campaign has shown their effectiveness in actual combat. This applies primarily to aircraft, submarines armed with cruise missiles and air defence systems,” said Igor Korotchenko, chief editor of the magazine Nat

Russia proposes information systems for Indian Navy ( Source- Russia & India Report / Author- Konstantin Zavrazhin)

INS Vikramaditya ( R-33) (Image credits- Indian Navy) Source- Russia & India Report Author- Konstantin Zavrazhin , RIR The Russian Morinformsystem-Agat company has held talks with several Indian instrument-making and defence companies on new projects to jointly develop information systems for the Indian Navy, a company press release said. “Talks were held with the GRSE Shipyard, Goa Shipyard, and Hindustan Shipyard on the possibilities for cooperation in the construction of new ships of Indian design, and integration of the concern’s information systems in these projects. Cooperation in development of joint-projects for manufacturing information systems for the Indian Navy were discussed with the instrument-manufacturing companies Bharat Electronics Limited and Mahindra & Mahindra, as well as defence companies Reliance Defence and the SUN Group,” RIA Novosti quoted the company’s press release as saying. Among areas of cooperation between Morinformsystem-Ag

India cannot be able to build naval fleet without Russia: expert ( Source- Russia & India Report / Author- Dmitry Sikorsky, Rueconomics.RU)

Image credits- Indian Navy Source- Russia & India Report Author- Dmitry Sikorsky, Rueconomics.RU India will, over the next decade, face the task of building a modern naval industrial complex, able to implement all the technologies already available to Delhi. Pyotr Topychkanov, Senior Researcher at the Security Centre of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations RAS, believes modernization of the Indian military-industrial complex, in order to develop the country’s naval forces, is long overdue. “The Indian naval doctrine and plans for the development of its Navy are greatly outpacing the current development of the country’s defence establishment. As a result, India is forced to depend on suppliers of foreign technologies and on the direct supply of naval armaments,” said Topychkanov. Modernization of this sector should not only focus on improving the quality and increasing the capacity of the country’s military-industrial complex, but also

Russia Looks to Off-Load Lethal New Frigates to India ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Dave Majumdar)

INS Tabar ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Deepak Gupta) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar Russia is hoping to sell three of its six planned Project 11356-class frigates to India. Moscow is hoping to rid itself of those ships because of their Ukrainian-built engines. The Russian Navy commissioned the first Project 11356 frigate—Admiral Grigorovich—into service last week. While the Russian Navy is expecting to commission two additional Project 11356 frigates into service in May and August, both of these vessels—Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov—will stay under Moscow’s control and serve with the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The remaining three vessels—which are still under construction—are likely going to be sold to India since New Delhi still has functional relations with Ukraine. A final decision on selling the ships, however, has yet to be made by Moscow. “So far, we are fulfilling the works under state defense order and building t

What will the Indian Navy’s new carrier look like? ( Source- Russia & India Report, LENTA.RU)

INS Vikrant (R-44) under construction at Kochi ( Source- Indian Navy) Source- Russia & India Report Authors-  ILYÁ KRAMNIK, KONSTANTIN BOGDANOV, LENTA.RU Russia, France, Britain and the United States have been asked by the Indian Navy to participate in a tender and compete for a contract to develop a new aircraft carrier for it. According to some media reports, Russia and France have made it to the short list of bidders, while India is inclined towards the Russian version. Announcing the beginning of design work on a new Indian aircraft carrier, the ‘Vishal’ in 2010, then Navy Chief Nirmal Kumar Verma said the Indian Navy wants a “large aircraft carrier” from which they will be able to launch fighters, radar surveillance aircraft, and tactical tanker aircraft. Officially, the new Indian aircraft carrier ‘Vishal’ is the second ship of the ‘Vikrant’ type. However, given requirements for the project promulgated by the Indian military means building a fundamentally ne

Russia remains biggest arms supplier to India ( Source- Russia & India Report/ TASS)

Indian Army T-90 tanks ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Cell105) Source- Russia& India Report / Tass Russia continues to be the largest arms supplier to India with a total value of agreements exceeding 340 billion rupees (more than $5 billion) over the past three years, the Indian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Monday. According to it, the United States ranks second, with 300 billion rupees (about $4.4 billion) allocated from India’s budget on its military products from 2012-2013 to 2014-2015 fiscal years. Russia also maintained its leading positions in the number of defence contracts signed with India within this period of time. "From 2012-2013 to 2014-2015 fiscal years, 162 arms purchase contracts were signed, among them 67 with other countries, including Russia (18 agreements), the United States (13) and France (six)," the defence ministry said. In India, a fiscal year begins on April 1 and ends on March 31. First publish

New Momentum for India-Russia Relations? ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Sumit Kumar)

Indian PM Narendra Modi in Moscow with President Putin ( Image credits- Flickr / MEA Official image gallery) Source- The Diplomat Author- Sumit Kumar In late December, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first state visit to Russia to take part in the 16th annual bilateral summit. Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin used the summit to review bilateral ties across a number of areas, including security, trade, commerce, science and technology, defense, and energy. Talking about the relationship, Modi described Russia as “a strong and reliable friend,” while Putin expressed his happiness about “developing the privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia.” This rhetoric, along with the signing of sixteen agreements, is being seen as very significant in sustaining and expanding India-Russia ties. One major step taken is a deepening of India’s defense partnership with Russia. On the eve of Modi’s visit to Russia, the Indian government announced t