India Approves $1.5-Bln Russian Missile Buy

The Indian government approved a $1.5-billion deal to buy 200 air-launched variants of the Russian-Indian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and 10,000 Russian-made Invar anti-tank missiles.

The Deccan Herald Indian daily reported the approval for the deal was made on Thursday. India’s Cabinet Committee on Security cleared a request from the Indian Air Force to buy the missiles which will be deployed on its Su-30MKI strike aircraft. The first test of the air-launched missile is due in December, the paper says.

The 10,000 Invar missiles for India’s T-90 tanks will be procured from a Russian manufacturer, but in the future 15,000 will be produced under license by India’s Bharat Technologies, the paper says.
Invar, a laser-guided weapon fired from the T-90’s barrel, is based on the Russian 9M119M missile (NATO AT-11 Sniper).