Deliveries of S-400 air defence missiles to start from next year: Govt

 India will start receiving the S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems from Russia from October next year and the deliveries will be completed by April 2023, the government said Wednesday.

India inked an agreement with Russia in October last year to procure a batch of the missile systems at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore."The deliveries will commence from October 2020 and will be completed by April 2023," Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in Lok Sabha while replying to a question on the contract.

India went ahead to seal the deal with Russia not withstanding the US' warnings against it."The system will provide a very capable air defence coverage to vulnerable areas/vulnerable points," Bhamre said.

The US had announced sanctions against Russia under the stringent law for its alleged meddling in the American presidential election in 2016 CAATSA, which came into effect in January, mandates the Donald Trump administration to punish entities engaging in significant transaction with the defence or intelligence establishment of Russia.