Ukraine war delays S-400 delivery

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, March 24

The delivery of the S-400 air defence missile system to India has been delayed due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In all, five such missile systems have been ordered under a $5-billion deal signed in October 2018. Of the five missile systems, three have already been delivered. The delivery of the remaining two has been delayed.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has said the Indian Air Force (IAF) informed the committee “there is a major project where the deliveries have been stopped because of the war. So, we had a major delivery this year, which is not going to take place. They have given us in writing that they are not able to deliver it”.

Sources said the “major project” mentioned in the committee’s report was the S-400 missile system and the two missiles were expected to be delivered by year-end.

Till now, the delivery of the S-400, in spite of the conflict in Ukraine, was on schedule.

Each S-400 system has eight vehicle-mounted launchers. Each launcher has four tubes allowing the commander on ground to launch four missiles from each launcher.

An S-400 missile can take down a hostile aircraft, a missile or an UAV at a range between 40 km and 400 km. Each system has its own radar and can track more than 100 targets at a distance of 600 km.