In India, they fear that due to the war against Ukraine, Russia will not meet deadlines for the delivery of important military supplies to India, which is the biggest buyer of Russian weapons.
Statements that due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine , Moscow will not be able to fulfill part of its obligations, were heard during hearings in the Indian parliament. Representatives of the Indian Air Force (IAF) said that this year Russia had planned a “major delivery” which will not take place. Details were not specified during the hearings.
Indian Air Force officials also said the war in Ukraine had affected Russian supplies so badly that they were forced to cut planned spending on Indian Air Force modernization for the year ending March 31, 2024 by almost a third compared to the previous year.
Indian Air Force plans capital expenditure of 853 billion rupees ($10.38 billion) for the 2022-23 financial year and cuts it to 588 billion rupees ($7.15 billion) in the national budget presented in February.
The statement from the Indian Air Force is the first official confirmation of a disruption in the delivery schedule by Russia.
The Indian Air Force depends on Russian supplies of spare parts for the Su-30MKI and MiG-29 fighters.
In response to a request from Reuters to comment on the Indian Air Force information, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in New Delhi said: “We have no information that could confirm the above .”
India’s biggest recent Russian arms acquisition is the S-400 Triumph air defense system, bought in 2018 for $5.4 billion. Three of these systems have already been delivered and two more are expected.
The USSR, and then post-Soviet Russia, were India’s biggest arms supplier for decades.
Russia accounted for $8.5 billion of the $18.3 billion India has spent on arms imports since 2017, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
According to Russian media, Russia has supplied over $13 billion worth of arms to India over the past five years.
For two decades, New Delhi has been seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian arms supplies and is interested in weapons from France, Israel and the United States. Indian companies are also trying to expand the country’s military production in cooperation with Western arms manufacturers.
The Indian Air Force also informed parliamentarians that the Russian-Ukrainian war has so severely affected Russian arms deliveries that it has cut planned capital expenditures for upgrades by almost a third. level for the year ending March 31, 2024 compared to the previous one.
Indian Air Force forecasts capital expenditure of 853 billion rupees ($10.38 billion) for fiscal year 2022-23, cuts to 588 billion rupees ($7.15 billion) in budget presented in February.
