14 MoUs for military spares and support signed with Russian firms-THE HINDU-17-02-2020

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The MoUs were signed during the 5th India Russia military industry conference held during the Defexpo 2020 in Lucknow. They come under the Intergovernmental Agreement on joint manufacturing of spares in India signed last September for mutual cooperation in manufacturing of spares, components, aggregates and other material related to Russian or Soviet-origin arms and defence equipment. “The first ‘Request for Proposal’ for manufacturing of parts in India under the provision of IGA was also handed over by the Navy to the identified Indian industry,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement. Ajay Kumar, Defence Secretary and Oleg Ryazantsev, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia.

Most of these air defence systems are now in the process of being phased out and replaced with new ones. Saying India has taken a number of steps to expedite the collaboration with Russian companies, Dr. Kumar called for expeditious implementation from the Russian side as well which has some procedural issues to sort out. Lack of timely spares and support has been a constant issue faced by the military a major part of which consists of Russian defence hardware.