Russia, India Ink Pact on Bulk Buying Heavy TanksRussia and India on Thursday signed a contract on providing the Indian armed forces with 310 fully-equipped Russian T-90C tanks, Russian news agencies reported.Under the 750-million-U.S.-U.S. dollar agreement, signed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and India's Defense Minister George Fernandes in New Delhi, India will first receive 124 completed Russian tanks. Secondly, another 186 tanks will be assembled at a factory in the town of Avadi, south India's Tamil Nadu state. Russia will grant India a license to make these T-90C tanks. Under the contract, all tanks will be equipped with defense systems against high-precision weapons and can carry laser-guided missiles to strike armored facilities and low-flying aircraft. The 46-ton-weighing T-90C tank will be used to replace the T-55 tanks serving in the Indian army. It can fire eight shells with a 125-mm diameter per minute. It has been tested in an Indian desert and its performance surpasses that of the T-80 tanks serving in the Pakistan army. The T-90C tank is produced in Russia's Uralsky Vagonostroitelny Zavod, a state unitary enterprise based in Nizhni Tagil city of the Sverdlovsk region, and its engine is made in the Chelyabinsk tractor factory, south Russia. After Thursday's signing ceremony, Fernandes said that the first batch of tanks will be adopted by the Indian armed forces in 2001 and that the supplied tanks will significantly advance India' s defense potential. |
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