Price differences holding up T-90 deal

By Vladimir Radyuhin

NIZHNY TAGIL (Urals), JULY 16. Indian and Russian negotiators are yet to resolve their differences over the price of T-90S Main Battle Tank (MBT) the Indian Army is planning to buy, the defence industry sources said at a major weapons show here.

Opening the Urals Expo Arms 2000, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Ilya Klebanov, said the contract was ``almost'' finalised and could be ready for signing within a month.

The Indian Defence Ministry cleared the deal in March, but its talks with the Rosvooruzheniye arms export company hit a snag over the price of the T-90S' laser-guided missile system, which is capable of hitting enemy armour and helicopters at a range of up to 5 km, the sources said.

The T-90S was a star attraction at this biggest Russian defence show. The President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, who visited the show on Friday, said he was ``amazed'' at the performance of Russian tanks which waded through deep water- filled ditches and jumped from metre-high ridges at a speed of 60 km/ph.

``Russian weapons are second to none and we're going to step up arms sales abroad,'' Mr. Putin said, disclosing that this year the country planned to export $4.3 billion worth of military hardware, up from $3.4 billion in 1999 and $2.8 billion in 1998.

Officials at the Uralvagonzavod tank factory here, which will manufacture the T-90S for India, said they had the blueprints ready to start production as soon as the contract was signed. The deal would give the factory funds to build Russia's fifth-general tank which, Mr. Klebanov said, should be ready by 2008.

The total value of the deal is likely to be somewhere between $600 million and $700 million, with the outright purchase of 124 tanks in fully assembled state and 186 in semi-knocked down and completely knocked down conditions. The contract also includes a licence for production of more T-90S at the Avadi (Chennai) ordnance factory, which has been manufacturing T-72 tanks, with Russia supplying engines, fire control systems and some other components.

The Urals expo brought together 800 samples of Russia's best military hardware produced by about 200 factories of the powerful defence industry. Many weapons are being evaluated by India for possible acquisition. They include the famed S-300 anti-missile defence system, the 155-mm MSTA-S self- propelled guns and the latest version of the Igla (Needle) portable, anti-aircraft missiles.

The next item on India's shopping list is likely to be the SMERCH (Tornado) multiple rocket-launchers, also displayed at the show. The two sides are currently negotiating financial terms for field tests of a SMERCH complex in India, on the basis of which a decision will be taken to purchase the world's most powerful rocket-launcher, which can haul twelve 7.5-metre missiles in a single salvo to wipe out enemy personnel and hardware in an area of over 67 hectares up to 90 km away.

Also on the cards are in-depth modernisation of Russian-supplied surface-to-air Pechora missiles, which have already gone through trial tests in India, and upgrading of India's 1,500 T-72 tanks.

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Section  : International
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