Russia remains key supplier of weaponry to India

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia remains a key supplier of weaponry to India with good prospects for future military-technical cooperation, RIA Novosti reported citing Viktor Komardin, Deputy General Director of Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport.

“The country [India] is one of the main importers of defense products on the global scale, and Russia continues to be one of its key suppliers,” said Komardin, who heads the Russian delegation at the upcoming AERO INDIA 2013 international aerospace show.

Last year alone, Russia concluded more than $3.5 billion’s worth of new arms export agreements with India, including the purchase of 71 Mi-17B-5 Hip helicopters and the delivery of assembly kits for 42 Su-30MKI Flanker fighters, while the current portfolio of Indian contracts is worth more than $7 billion.

“We expect Rosoboronexport to annually ship at least $3 billion’s worth of weapons and material under the contracts that have already been signed with the Indian state clients,” Komardin said.

At the same time, Russia is facing growing competition on the Indian arms market as New Delhi has been taking serious steps to diversify military imports over the past few years. At present, Russian weapons account for about 70 percent of all military hardware in service with the Indian Armed Forces.

Last year Russian arms exporters suffered two painful losses at Indian tenders. Russia did not win the contract to supply 22 helicopters to India, which preferred the US AH-64D Apache to Russia’s Mi-28N.