• Friday, March 29, 2024

HEADLINE STORY

Why Russia-Ukraine war has left India’s air force deeply worried

An Indian Air Force fighter aircraft Sukhoi Su-30 (Photo by STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has said that Russia, one of the South Asian nation’s time-tested military hardware suppliers, is not able to deliver key defence supplies it had pledged because of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

According to Reuters which reported this, India is worried that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year could adversely impact military supplies from its largest source of defence equipment.

The IAF’s revealing statement is the first official confirmation of such a lag, the Reuters report added.

The air force’s statement, which was made to a parliamentary committee, was published on its website on Tuesday (21). According to an IAF representative, Moscow had planned a “major delivery” this year which will not be fulfilled.

However, the Russian side did not confirm the report.

While a spokesperson for the Russian embassy in New Delhi said, according to the Reuters report, that they did not have information “which may confirm the stated”, Rosoboronexport, the Russian government’s weapons export arm, did not respond immediately.

The largest military delivery from Russia to India ongoing at the moment is the S-400 Triumf air defence system which New Delhi bought for $5.4 billion in 2018. While three units have been delivered so far, two are awaited.

The IAF also told the parliamentary panel that the Ukraine war affected its supplies to the extent that it reduced its projected capital expenditure on modernisation for the 2023-24 financial year by nearly a third compared to the previous fiscal.

The air force had projected a capital expenditure of Rs 853 billion rupees for fiscal 2022-23 and slashed it to Rs 588 billion in the national budget presented last month.

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