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. In the country where missiles were first used 400 years ago, by Mughal armies and 230 years ago by Tipu Sultan, it is good to hear that India is willing to purchase the excellent S-400. Though one does not see how a mere 12 such systems is a 'Game changer'....China will have them and so will Pakistan (Chinese version). Russia has 1000 S-300 systems from 1979.....and India will need about 500 such systems eventually MANUFACTURED in India (S-400).......so India needs to get the license production rights from Russia (Make in India). This is what it means to be a 'Great Power'. India also needs to Purchase about 400 Su-35's from Russia for $40 billion whilst India waits for full production of the 5th generation Su-T50 in Make in India.......and India's own stealth jet project at least 15 years away.....going on past experience. India shamefully for a 'Great Power' is going to spend at least $300 billion in the next 10 years on foreign arms purchases. (2015--2025)...to feed the pig swill troughs of the arms middle men in and around Delhi, their allied netas and babus and serving military men in the huge kick back industry.
So $40 billion for 400 Su-35's is a small fraction of that overall arms spree. The Rafael deal was a waste.....as the Su-30MKI out performs the Rafael at all levels.....so why the need to diversify? The Indian airforce is starting to look like an airfarcemuseum with aircraft from around the world. The Tejas is not sexy but a good ground attack aircraft, support aircraft and trainer....and most importantly Indian designed and manufactured. The Indian airforce and indeed the Indian armed forces don't need the best advertised weapons from the global arms bazaar. What the Indian armed forces need is mediocre, but reliable Indian manufactured weapons systems from India.
The USA, Russia and China ........don't import a lot of their arms for clear strategic reasons, and economic reasons. India is a land power that needs to focus on the re-tooling the army as a matter of priority, then the airfarce.
Rajat Pandit,TNN and the Times of IndiaIn
what could be a game-changing arms acquisition, India is planning to
acquire the new-generation Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile
systems that can destroy incoming hostile aircraft, stealth fighters,
missiles and drones at ranges of up to 400-km.
Sources say the
defence acquisitions council (DAC), chaired by Manohar Parrikar, will
"soon" take up the proposal moved by the IAF to purchase around a dozen
S-400 long-range systems from Russia. "The project is at an
initial stage at present. But it will be a government-to-government
contract when it is finalized, with the S-400 systems being inducted
over several years," said a defence ministry source. The
procurement proposal comes ahead of Parrikar's impending visit to
Russia, which will be followed by the Modi-Putin summit in Moscow in
December. It also comes around a year after China sealed a $3 billion
deal with Russia for acquisition of six S-400 batteries. China
is slated to get the S-400 batteries, which is designated `SA-21
Growler' by NATO and rivals the anti-ballistic missile capabilities of
the US Patriot PAC-3 system, from 2017 onwards.
Countries
locked in territorial disputes with China in the East and South China
Seas, ranging from Japan and Taiwan to Vietnam and the Philippines, are
all worried at the prospect of the People's Liberation Army getting such
a force-multiplier to dominate the airspace. India obviously is also
wary of China acquiring such a military capability, even if it is
defensive in nature, since it can make all the difference during a
conflict.
The S-400 basically has three kinds of missiles, with
different capabilities, that can fly at supersonic and hypersonic
speeds to intercept all kinds of targets at ranges from 120 to 400-km.
Russian experts even proclaim the S-400 surface-to-air missile (SAM)
system can "radar lock and shoot down" stealth fifth-generation fighters
like the American F-35 jets.
India, on its part, is now
belatedly trying to plug the gaping holes in its airspace surveillance
and defence network with progressive induction of a wide array of
sensors and weapons.
With both IAF, tasked with the country's
air defence, and Army saddled with increasingly obsolete air defence
weapons, the ongoing induction of the indigenous 25-km range Akash area
defence system has come as a major relief for them.
Induction
of the Israeli Spyder low-level quick-reaction missile systems, with a
15-km range, is now planned from 2016-2017 onwards. The project was
stuck since the Tatra trucks -- on which the missile systems were to be
mounted - had got enmeshed in corruption scandals. The contract was
recently amended to replace the Tatra trucks with Tata trucks.
Deliveries of the medium-range SAM systems jointly developed by Israeli
Aerospace Industries and DRDO, with an interception range of 70-km, will
also begin from 2016-2017.
Along with induction of these
weapons, IAF is also now expanding its fully-automated surveillance
network called IACCS (integrated air command and control system) to the
entire country, with the cabinet committee on security recently
approving another Rs 8,000 crore for the project. Eventually, the Army
and Navy's Akash Teer and Triguna air defence networks will be
integrated with the IACCS.
"The project is at an
initial stage at present. But it will be a government-to-government
contract when it is finalized, with the S-400 systems being inducted
over several years," said a defence ministry source.
The
procurement proposal comes ahead of Parrikar's impending visit to
Russia, which will be followed by the Modi-Putin summit in Moscow in
December. It also comes around a year after China sealed a $3 billion
deal with Russia for acquisition of six S-400 batteries.
