Russia Sends India Fourth S-400 Squadron After Three Year Delay on Defense Deal

Russia has delivered the fourth of five S-400 air defense squadrons ordered by India under a 2018 contract, pressing to close the long-delayed deal even as it seeks more arms sales to New Delhi.

Indian news agency ANI, citing its own sources, reported on June 3 that the system reached India several days earlier, with the fifth and final squadron expected within the coming months.

Defense Express assessed that the transfer underlines Moscow's drive to finish the five-unit order this year. The first three systems arrived relatively on schedule, while the fourth, originally due in 2022, slipped because of Russia's war against Ukraine, the outlet added.

Indian interest is unsurprising, as New Delhi prizes the system for strengthening its air defenses and is weighing the purchase of five more S-400 batteries. During the "Sindoor" operation against Pakistan, the system was credited with strong results, though both sides offered inflated figures, the analysis noted.

The S-400 Triumph, known to NATO as the SA-21 Growler, is a long-range surface-to-air system designed to engage aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.

A single unit network connects a command post, radars, and transporter-launchers, reaching targets at distances of up to about 400 kilometers and altitudes of up to 30 kilometers, depending on the interceptor.

The system is far less suited to downing the low-flying attack drones now eroding Russia's own defenses. The sale, therefore, offers a way to raise revenue while freeing Moscow to buy systems better matched to that threat, the report observed.

Russia's own S-400 batteries have proved far from invulnerable. Ukrainian forces destroyed a launcher from one such Triumph system in temporarily occupied territory in late March, in a wave of strikes that also hit a military train and a steelworks.

Moscow's push to keep India as a buyer comes as its standing in that market erodes. New Delhi has advanced a roughly $40 billion order for 114 French Rafale fighters, a deal that would likely shut Russia out of a combat-aircraft market where it had hoped to sell 84 Su-57 stealth jets.

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