NEW DELHI: India will get its strategic S-400 Air Defence missile systems from Russia by April 2023 informed the government on Wednesday.
“A contract has been signed on October 5, 2018, for delivery of S-400 system from Russia. The deliveries are likely to be made by April 2023,” Minister of State (Defence) Shripad Naik said.
Shripad Naik was replying to questions asked by Imitiaz Jaleel Syed, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP from Aurangabad, Maharashtra, in Lok Sabha.
Replying on whether USA has threatened India with Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) to pressurise India to purchase its Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, Shripad Naik said, “Government takes sovereign decisions based on threat perception, operational and technological aspects to keep the Armed Forces in a state of readiness to meet the entire spectrum of security challenges.”
The long-range air defence missile, the deal for which was signed in October 2018, will cost around Rs 35,000 crore for five missile systems.
The missile can track 300 targets at 600 km and can deploy four different kinds of missiles engaging the targets at varying distances.
Muscle to air defence
It can be deployed in 5 minutes.
It costs much lesser than the other missile defence systems.
It can hit all air objects from a range of 100 ft to 40,000ft.