Russia to begin delivery of S-400 to India, likely to be operational by January-February 2022: Report
The supplies arrived in time for Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India on December 6 for a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
FollowDespite the prospect of US sanctions, India has begun obtaining Russian S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems. According to reports, India's defence system will be operational by January or February of next year. According to reports, some missile system components have arrived in India, but all crucial parts have yet to come. It should be recalled that India struck a $5 billion deal with Russia in October 2018 to purchase five S-400 missile systems, despite a warning from the then-Trump administration that proceeding with the arrangement may result in US penalties. The US has previously sanctioned Turkey for acquiring S-400 missile systems from Russia under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. The CAATSA, enacted in 2017, allows for punitive sanctions against any country that conducts business with Russia's defence and intelligence industries.
Although the Biden administration has yet to comment on India's agreement with Russia, there are still fears that Washington would slap similar sanctions on India. Russia's most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system is the S-400. It can track several oncoming objects, including aircraft, missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles, in a radius of a few hundred kilometres and launch suitable missiles to neutralise them.
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As per the media report, the missile contains radars that can detect an oncoming item up to 1,000 kilometres away, track several dozen incoming objects concurrently, allocate the targets to missile systems, and assure a high success rate. The S-400 has been mainly built to identify and kill a wide range of targets, including strategic bombers, electronic warfare, early warning, reconnaissance aircraft, and fighter planes such as the F-16 and F-22. Russia has been a significant supplier of guns and ammunition to India. Several agreements in the domains of defence, business and investment, and science and technology are likely to be finalised at the Modi-Putin summit.
