Russia is hoping to receive an advance payment for S-400 air defence systems from India by the end of 2019 so that the deliveries may begin in 2020 and be completed by 2025, Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) Vladimir Drozhzhov told reporters.
“The [payment] scheme has been agreed, and I hope that the first payment will soon be transferred by the Indian side”, Drozhzhov said. “I think that by the end of 2020 – the beginning of 2021 the first system should be delivered. After the first set, the systems will be delivered under a certain schedule over the next few years, that is, India should get all the systems by2024-2025”, he explained.
In early October 2018, Moscow and New Delhi concluded a contract on the deliveries of Russia’s S-400 missile systems to India worth over $5 billion. The deal was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to India.
Previously, the US State Department gave India a subtle warning that buying weapons from Russia – in particular, S-400 missile defence systems – could compromise further arms deals between New Delhi and Washington, leading to the sanctions against India in line with Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
The S-400 is an advanced mobile air defence missile system which can carry three different types of missiles capable of destroying a variety of aerial targets at a short-to-extremely-long range, from reconnaissance aircraft to ballistic missiles.