S-400 missile system by ’23, advance pay to Russia done

India will get the mobile S-400 Triumf air defence missile system (NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler) by 2023 and Russia has confirmed that it working on the schedule after the issue of advance payment for the delivery of the long-range surface-to-air weapons platform was settled. 

“The contract for S-400s will be implemented in compliance with the accords reached and the documents signed. The issue of making an advance payment under the contract has been resolved. We are not commenting on the details,” Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation told TASS news agency on Thursday in Moscow.

The statement came within 24 hours of Russian Embassy in India Minister-Counsellor Roman Babushkin clarified that the missile system will reach the Indian armed forces in the next four years. 

“The term of the contract’s implementation is well known: by 2023, these systems must be delivered to India. Russia is ready to take all necessary efforts to follow the time parameters of this agreement,” Babushkin said in New Delhi on Wednesday.

“We proceed from the fact that the contract will be implemented in full in accordance with the interests of both countries and the accords reached. We intend to strictly comply with them,” he added.