India, Russia sign defence deals worth Rs 25,000 crore

NEW DELHI: India on Monday inked
mega defence deals worth almost Rs
25,000 crore with Russia, including
ones for 42 more Sukhoi-30MKI
fighters and 71 additional Mi-17 V5
helicopters.
Russia has also assured India that
"technical problems" in the nuclear-
powered submarine INS Chakra will
soon be sorted out. INS Chakra, the
Akula-II class attack submarine
leased from Russia for 10 years at a
cost of around $1 billion, has been
dogged by some technical glitches
ever since it was inducted barely a
year ago, as was first reported by TOI
last week.
The new deals, which came at the
summit meeting between PM
Manmohan Singh and Russian
President Vladimir Putin, again
reinforce Russia's position as India's
largest defence supplier despite fresh
challenges being mounted by Israel,
France and US.
The deals were cleared by the
Cabinet Committee on Security last
Friday. The 42 new Sukhois, to be
produced under licence by defence
PSU Hindustan Aeronautics, will add
to the 230 Sukhois earlier contracted
from Russia. Overall, the price tag
for the 272 Sukhois - three of the
over 170 inducted till now have
crashed - stands at over $12 billion.
The medium-lift Mi-17 V5 helicopters
(59 for IAF and 12 for home ministry/
BSF) will add to the 80 such choppers
already being inducted under a
$1.34 billion deal inked in 2008.
The value of India's defence projects
with Russia will further zoom north
after the imminent inking of the final
design contract for the joint
development of a futuristic stealth
fifth-generation fighter. This R&D
contract is itself pegged at $11
billion, to be shared equally by the
two countries.
So, if India inducts over 200 of these
5th Gen fighters, as it hopes to do
from 2022 onwards, the overall cost
of this gigantic project for India will
come to around $35 billion since each
of the jets will come for upwards of
$100 million at least.
India remains unhappy with Russia
for not sticking to delivery schedules,
jacking up costs midway through
execution of agreements, creating
hurdles in the ways of transfer of
technology and not providing proper
product and spares support.
India, for instance, has also sought
Russia's firm assurance that INS
Vikramaditya, the refurbished
44,570-tonne Admiral Gorshkov for
which a revised cost of $2.33 billion
has been paid, is not delayed beyond
the already much-delayed deadline
of November 2013.
India will not order more than 272
Sukhois but a plan to convert a bulk
of them into 'Super Sukhois' in the
years ahead with more advanced
avionics, weapons and AESA (active
electronically scanned array) radars
is in the pipeline.