Russia Deals on The Rise

Just after a month after India signed the 39,000 crores for S-400 systems from Russia, a new deal for two new stealth frigates to be built in India was signed today. Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport and India’s Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) signed the contract in New Delhi to build the Grigorovich-class ‘Project 1135.6’ frigates with technology transfer from Russia.

The deal comes just weeks after the two countries inked a nearly $1 billion deal to import two other such warships from Russia. Those ships are being built at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad and are expected to be delivered to the Indian Navy by 2022-23.

Russian defense major Rosoboronexport is understood to have emerged as the lowest bidder in the Indian Army's tender for procurement of a batch of short-range air defense missile systems, official sources said Monday.

However, this will be one other test whether it can secure a waiver from the USA from the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (Caatsa), arguing that its military is heavily dependent on Russian equipment and the two countries share a unique, time-tested relationship.

On a visit to Russia in August, senior Russian officials had told Livefist, “The Grigorovich ships differ quite considerably from the six ships delivered to the Indian Navy earlier. Although the first Talwars were dubbed the first stealth ships of the Indian Navy, the low visibility qualities of the latest 11356 ships are known to be much stronger and thus they can be justifiably labeled stealth frigates. Another major difference will be the joint Indo-Russian BrahMos missile systems instead of Klub.”