Russia has signed a contract to supply Igla-S hand-held anti-aircraft missiles to India and also have allowed the production of the Igla there under licence.
However, as of now no details has been provided about which Indian companies would be involved or when potential production would start.
“We have already signed the corresponding document and now, together with an Indian private company, we are organising the production of Igla-S MANPADS in India,” TASS quoted Alexander Mikheyev, head of the state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, as saying.
Noteworthy, India is the world’s largest arms importer and Russia remains its largest supplier.
Rather, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia accounted for 45% of India’s arms imports between 2018 and 2022, with France providing 29% and the United States 11%.
Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com
About Igla-S hand-held anti-aircraft missiles
Igla-S is a man-portable air defence system (MANPADS) that is designed to engage all types of visible fixed- and rotary-winged aircraft on head-on and pursuit courses as well as small-sized air targets like cruise missiles around the clock under thermal and background noise.
Further, it can be fired by an individual or crew to bring down an enemy aircraft.
Main characteristics
- Range: 500 to 6000 m
- Altitude: 10 to 3500 m
- Target speed:
- Ready for operation on a signal while on the march: 12 seconds
- Ready for launch after activation: 5 seconds
- Missile features: tracing, passive, infrared bi-spectral seeker
