Purchasing Russian missiles have risks of inviting US sanctions.
Since India is officially a US ally, Why is India purchasing S-400 rather than the US-made missiles (Patriot or David's Sling or THAAD)?
If tech-transfer was the issue, S-400 doesn't come with a tech-transfer. Patriot and THAAD may ...
India is more interested in technology transfer than merely weapon transfer. Maybe in hope that Russia will aid India in developing it's own missile defence systems or components like radar etc. in future and US is not in favor of technology transfer to other nations because of fear of getting it in wrong hands.
BTW for your point no. 1 , the below webpage says negotiations were going on with Russia from long time as told by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. m.businesstoday.in/story/…
@SwiftPushkar, the news link is from 2018. India has already placed an order without the tech-transfer agreement. India can at best ask for local assembly, not full tech-transfer, as S-400 is Russia's pinnacle of SAM/ADS system. They will not sell this tech so easily.
Yeah you are right. I was not specifically talking about tech transfer of S400 , but in hope that with this deal Russia will aid India in other defence technology areas like guns , tanks , light aircraft etc. or a jet engine may be. Also in the area of space exploration like designing cryogenic engines. Not a political or defence expert though and all these are my wild guesses.
but in hope that with this deal Russia will aid India in other defense technology areas like guns, tanks, light aircraft, etc. or a jet engine may be. Also in the area of space exploration like designing cryogenic engines. --- wrong again. India's DRDO has already been working on these projects for at least 3 decades. If they had to seek Russian help, that would have been sought long ago. and all these are my wild guesses. --- kindly stop guessing.
I think you are already aware about this but the decision of buying S400 also involve technical capabilities. If we compare both S400 and THAAD ( and not David's Sling ) .
"The US-built THAAD can hit targets only at very high altitudes (minimum 40-50 km) due to which it is useless against fighter jets or long-range tactical aircrafts, making it strictly an anti-missile defense system."
"Whereas, S-400 can target aircrafts as well as cruise missiles and ballistic missiles which makes it more effective than THAAD. Moreover, THAAD has never been used in actual warfare, whereas, S400 is time-tested in the actual operational environment in Syria."
Discussion between SwiftPushkar and u…
Discussion between SwiftPushkar and u…