India's government on Thursday approved the acquisition of 33 Russian fighter jets and upgrades to a different 59 planes, acting to strengthen its air force at a time when the military is locked during a border stand-off with China.
The approval for 21 MiG-29 planes and a dozen Su-30 jets will together cost 181.48 billion rupees ($2.43 billion), the defense ministry said.
The purchase, alongside the upgrade of 59 other MiG-29s, was an effort to deal with the “long-felt need of the Air Force to extend its fighter squadrons”, it added.
Tensions between India and China are at their highest in years following a crash last month during a disputed stretch of the border within the western Himalayas during which India lost 20 soldiers.
The two countries, which fought a quick border war in 1962, have since the recent clash moved additional forces and military equipment into key sections of the three, 488-kilometer Line of Actual Control — the ceasefire line separating the 2 forces.
The green light for the Russian planes followed a visit to Moscow last month by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh where he urged his hosts to hurry up deliveries, officials said.
More than half India's military hardware remains of Russian origin albeit over the last decade India has turned to us and Israel for high-tech arms transfers. Major arms manufacturers are wooing the country because it replaces obsolete Soviet-era weapons.
The Defence Ministry also approved the acquisition of air-to-air missiles developed indigenously that it said will increase the strike capability of the air force.
Rahul Bedi, a defense analyst, said the acquisition of the Russian aircraft will boost the air force's depleted fighter squadron numbers, which have dropped from an approved total of 42 to twenty-eight. One squadron comprises 18 aircraft.
He said the 21 MiG-29s are going to be second-hand planes which will be updated in Russia, while the 12 Su-30MKIs are going to be built under license by India's state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
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