Russia and
India signed a major arms deal on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Goa this
past weekend. The deal included four major components.
First, India becomes the
second country after China to receive S-400 long-range air defense missiles.
The agreement is for Russia to provide either 4 or 5 S-400 battalions to India.
(Russian sources report the lower number, while Indian sources went with the higher one.) While a
contract has not yet been signed, Russia signed a contract with China in 2014
to export four battalions for approximately $2 billion. The first systems are
expected to be delivered in 2020.
Second, the two sides signed an agreement for India to purchase four Project
11356 (Admiral Grigorovich class) frigates. This agreement resolves the saga of
the Project 11356 frigates that were originally ordered for Russia’s Black Sea
Fleet but could not be completed after Ukraine refused to provide turbines for
the ships in the aftermath of the 2014 conflict in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.
An agreement has been reached for Ukraine to provide the turbines for the ships
as long as they are exported to India. According to Alexey Nikolsky of Vedomosti, one of the three ships
will be completed at Yantar, while the hulls of the other two will be
transferred to India and completed there. In addition, a fourth ship will be
built entirely in India. The BMPD blog states that two ships will be
completed in Russia and two built in India. It should be noted that India
already operates six frigates of this type, which it calls the Talwar class.
The total value of this agreement may be around $3 billion, which may include Russian
assistance in the modernization of the HSL shipyard in India.
Third, the two sides signed an
agreement for India to lease an inactive Akula-class multi-purpose nuclear
submarine. India is already leasing a submarine of this class from
Russia, the INS Chakra (formerly known as the Nerpa), which has been in the
Indian Navy since 2012. Although the specific submarine to be leased was not mentioned,
Russian contacts report that it is likely to be one of the Northern Fleet
submarines currently being overhauled at Zvezdochka (Samara or Bratsk), rather
than the hull that has been sitting incomplete at the Amur shipyard since the
mid-1990s and has in the past been mentioned
as a possible candidate for leasing to India. The agreement noted that the
submarine is expected to be refurbished and modernized prior to transfer. Given
the Indian Navy’s experience with the modernization of the INS Vikramaditya, I
wonder what provisions about delays and cost overruns the Indian side will
include in the contract.
This agreement signals that
India has given up on leasing or buying a Yasen-class submarine. As I have indicated previously, Russia was most
likely unwilling to provide its most advanced submarine to India, either
because of its capabilities or because constraints on the number of Yasen-class
submarines that can be built in Russia would mean that providing such a
submarine to India would result in delays in the procurement of Yasen submarines
for the Russian Navy.
Finally, Rosoboronexport, Russian Helicopters, and the Indian company HAL have
agreed to create
a joint venture for the production of Ka-226T helicopters. According to
the BMPD blog, the venture will buy 60 helicopters from Russian Helicopters and
then assemble an additional 140 in Bangalore under license.
According to Konstantin
Makienko of CAST, the total value of these four agreements is likely to
substantially exceed $6 billion. The agreements show that although India has
sought to diversify its suppliers for military equipment, it will continue to
have a strong relationship with Russia in this field, particularly when it
comes to hardware that it cannot receive from other suppliers (such as nuclear
submarines and long-range air defense missiles).
This first appeared in Russian
Military Reform blog
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