Russia to supply all five S-400 missile regiments by 2023: Subhash Bhamre

Russia will start delivering the first of India's five S-400 missile regiments from 2020 with complete deliveries in the next three years by 2023 and will provide security to vulnerable areas and points from aerial threats, says Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre.

"A contract was signed on October 5, 2018, for delivery of S-400 system from Russia. The deliveries will commence from October 2020 and will be completed by April 2023," adds the Minister.

"The system will provide very capable air defence coverage to vulnerable areas (Vas) and vulnerable points (VPs)," Minister Bhamre informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday in a written reply.

India and Russia had signed a deal worth around Rs 40,000 crore for acquiring five regiments of the S-400 air defence missile systems from Russian Almaz Antey.

The Russian missile system can track and destroy multiple targets at a distance between 100 to 380 km. India would be the second user of the missile system in Asia after China.

However, the Chinese system is believed to be less capable than the Indian system as Russia has not provided the longest-range missile system to China with 380 km strike range. The Indian system has four tiers of strike range with the lowest being around 100 km.

-ANI