EVERGREEN RUSSIAN FACTOR IN EVOLUTION OF IAF

AMIT COWSHISH argues why it is hard to ignore the Russian factor in India’s military capability

- AMIT COWSHISH

Despite the threat of US sanctions looming over India’s $5.5 billion import of five Russian Almaz-Antey S-400 Triumf self-propelled surface-to-air (SAM) missile systems, it is improbable that India will dump Russia as its most reliable material provider. If anything, the reliance on Russian defence equipment which presently arms over 60 per cent of its services, will not only be sustained but will further proliferate, as India struggles to modernise its forces to meet security challenges in the neighbourhood.

The camaraderie that has evolved between the defence establishments of the two countries over the past six decades also remains robust, despite several irritants, including India’s increasingly sourcing of newer equipment from alternate sources in France, Israel, and the US. But the US, it seems, is seeking to dent these symbiotic ties that successfully weathered the storm caused by the Soviet Union’s disintegration in the early 1990s and the consequent dispersal of its vast military-industrial complex into many Republics, several of them inimical to Russia.

Senior US officials, including Kenneth Juster, the outgoing US envoy to New Delhi, recently indicated the possibility of Washington invoking the four-year-old Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) against India for acquiring the S-400 air defence systems for the Indian Air Force (IAF). Other Russian equipment like combat aircraft, helicopters, warships, nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) and small arms, varied missiles, and munitions, amongst others, make Indian vulnerable to the US sanctions.