The Indian Air Force had already branded the Russian-made S-400 defence systems as a 'game changer.' And now, New Delhi is looking to add more units to its arsenal. The S-400 surface to air missiles were extensively used in India's recent military clash with Pakistan.
About 5 months after India launched Operation Sindoor, India is now in talks with Russia to add at least 5 more units. According to Hindustan Times, the negotiations are set to begin this week. Officials will decide if the units will be jointly produced or bought directly from Russia.
Two of the five systems purchased in 2018 are yet to be delivered. But if the deal goes through, a total of 7 will be in queue.
The deal is expected to finalised as soon as December this year, just before Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit India.
S-400 specifications
The S-400, which NATO calls it the SA-21 Growler, is a mobile, surface-to-air missile system (SAM) designed by Russia. The S-400 has a multi function radar, autonomous detection and targeting systems, anti-aircraft missile systems, launchers, and a command and control centre.
It takes no longer than 5 minutes to deploy, making it much faster than the American-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD.
It's job is to detect any aerial threat in the area it has been tasked with protecting, calculate the threat’s path, and then dispatch a suitable missile to counter the threat.
Indian Express reports that the S-400 can also simultaneously track 100 airborne targets, including super fighters such as the US-built F-35, and engage six of them at the same time.
India's Air Chief Marshal said the S-400 was a 'game changer' during Operation Sindoor without specifying how many threats it neutralised.
"As far as the air defence part is concerned, we have clear evidence of one long-range strike, which I talked about more than 300 km, which happened to be either an AEW&C or a SIGINT aircraft, along with five high-tech fighters between F-16 and JF-17 class, this is what our system tells us," IAF chief AP Singh said.
The recent conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals was triggered by an attack on tourists in Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22, the state's deadliest civilian attack in decades.
New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the Islamist militants it said carried out the attack, charges that Pakistan denied.
