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News & Current Events Mar 30, 2026 at 6:19 PM

India to Purchase S-400 Systems and Drones From Russia for $25 Billion

Posted by zxNemz

India to Purchase S-400 Systems and Drones From Russia for $25 Billion
UNITED24 Media
India to Purchase S-400 Systems and Drones From Russia for $25 Billion
The $25 billion India-Russia arms deal, including S-400 systems, highlights India's strategic shift amid regional tensions and its ongoing military spending.
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Scary_One_2452 Mar 30, 2026 +37
Doesn't $25 billion cleared also include 60 units of Brazilian C-390/American C-130 plus 80 units of domestic UAVs, plus some other purchases as well? 5 units of s400 was $5.5 billion so even with inflation thats less than a quarter of the whole order.
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IamSunka Mar 31, 2026 +14
Yes, it does. Title is misleading.
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Nearby_Landscape2553 Apr 1, 2026 +3
Typical misleading post
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[deleted] Mar 30, 2026 +87
[deleted]
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Sam_Fisher91 Mar 30, 2026 +23
Pending orders are coming this year. Original order had provisions for follow on order of 5 at the same price. This is the same order
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zoobrix Mar 30, 2026 +1
When my understanding is Russia failed to deliver on a range of contracts since 2022 I have no idea why India would order any more from them. And with the Russian economy tanking and them making tiny gains in Ukraine who knows if you'll get the spare parts to be able to support your Russian weapons into the future. I get India likes to maintain neutrality and spread their military purchases between different countries but at this point I'd cross Russia off the list and look elsewhere when they've failed to even deliver on contracts to keep the weapons you already have functional. Edit: People are downvoting being skeptical of Russia meeting their commitments? They abandoned Assad in Syria and hung out long time ally Azerbaijan in their recent conflict with Armenia. Russia is focusing it's entire military machine on Ukraine, if India is thinking they'll be a priority at all for defence equipment they are mistaken. I'll believe those pending orders get to India this year *if* it actually happens.
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yaaro_obba_ Mar 31, 2026 +16
There was a delay in the delivery of the S400 when the Russia Ukraine conflict started, yes. No one is denying that. But the pace has picked up significantly since then. The Indian Air Force officials are in Russia for the final User Acceptance Tests for the fourth unit and might reach India in a month or two. The fifth one is slated to be delivered by the end of the year. But if we were to cancel every vendor who has delayed the delivery of military equipment to India, GE would top the list. We have aircrafts manufactured and waiting for the F404 engines to arrive from the US. They were supposed to deliver 20 engines as of March 31. They have delivered a grand total of 5.
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zoobrix Mar 31, 2026 -2
> But if we were to cancel every vendor who has delayed the delivery of military equipment to India Sure anyone can be late on delivery, and I get it's fairly common for defense contracts, but the US economy hasn't been depleted by 4 years of grinding war like Russia's has. And when Russia is abandoning Azerbaijan, an ally right on its borders, because it couldn't spare the military equipment Russia will halt any delivery to India the second it suits them. They'll do anything to keep fighting in Ukraine, even if that means alienating India and risking oil sales to you. And what is the Russian economy going to look like in a few years? Russia is already suffering really high inflation because they're printing massive amounts of money to lend to the banks to buy Russian government bonds to fund their huge deficits. If, most likely *when*, the Russian economy has a hard landing after the war you could see all kinds of disruptions to Russian production across their industries, defence included. The higher price they can get for oil at the moment doesn't fix their problems, just eases them a little because as the price of energy goes up so does the price of everything Russia imports eating up a lot of their increased profits. Believe me I'm not a fan of the US, but I would still bet on an American defence contract being fulfilled over a Russian one at the moment, even with the US currently involved in their Iran debacle.
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Parking-Cockroach104 Mar 31, 2026 +6
\> Russia will halt any delivery to India the second it suits them That is true, but they need a lot more money to fund their military programmes, so I don't think they will isolate one of their biggest customers for that. \> Believe me I'm not a fan of the US, but I would still bet on an American defence contract being fulfilled over a Russian one at the moment, even with the US currently involved in their Iran debacle. For India, no. India does not even buy American fighter jets because of the conditions and maintenance related stuff associated with it. Looking towards American engines has been the biggest hurdle in our fighter jet development programme. A lot of airframes are sitting on the ground, waiting for the delivery of the engines. But for things like S-400, it does not matter much because we already have our indigenous Akash systems that perform well enough, and integrating that system with the existing S400 has proved to be successful. So, a delay in S400 is still fine for India, but a delay in the delivery of the engines is harmful to our already low air force fleet strength. India is also looking for licensed production of SJ100 aircrafts. There will be deeper partnership between India and Europe (France and Russia mainly) before we deepen the ties with USA in this. American planes come with a lot of strings attached. We like operational freedom.
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zoobrix Mar 31, 2026 +1
> So, a delay in S400 is still fine for India, but a delay in the delivery of the engines is harmful to our already low air force fleet strength. So are the delays for orders of some parts for your SU-30MKI fleet from Russia. There is a reason you bought over 100 Rafales recently but only a handful of new locally produced SU-30's, the Indian air force obviously doubts Russia's ability to deliver key parts that aren't made in India. And the reason you probably went with American made engines for your own fighter was better performance and reliability. >  I don't think they will isolate one of their biggest customers for that. So they delayed orders due to the war in Ukraine and it obviously could get worse but let's just ignore that, ok... And you just totally ignored the huge challenges facing the Russian economy, not just now but that it will almost certainly look worse in the near future. India has lessened purchases of Russian defence equipment the last few years, you can say the delays and obvious problems Russia is experiencing don't matter and aren't really different to delays from other suppliers but the obviously the Indian military doesn't agree.
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Parking-Cockroach104 Mar 31, 2026 +1
A delay for our fighters are obviously really harmful for our fighter jet programme. Russians and Americans are doing a bad job in the delivery of components. The company that is producing these planes are also really inefficient in India. So there's a lot of issues, for sure. But when it comes to air defence systems, integrating with our existing systems requires something that we are already familiar with, like the S-400. Akash and S-400 have performed really well during the recent operation sindoor. It intercepted all missiles. So it is better to go with more units of S400 than any new American system. There's also a chance we are looking at technology transfer of various systems. Russian economy is in a problematic situation. They will be more likely to give us technology transfer than America or France. That kind of technology transfer is what is going to propel Indian indigenous programmes forward. So it's better to trust Europe more than America. America is also right now running Truth Social diplomacy. I don't think we will create too much deals until he is out of the white house.
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OkTemporary335 Mar 31, 2026 +2
>I'd cross Russia off the list and look elsewhere when they've failed to even deliver on contracts General electric has slacked off a lot in delivering engines which hurt our Tejas LCA program a lot. Russia isn't unique to this, falling short on defense contracts is the norm
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No_Yesterday_3260 Mar 30, 2026 +8
Wasn't there just another post yesterday or saturday, that they cancelled it?
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Jatobi1993 Mar 31, 2026 -9
Why would they want to buy Russian equipment anyway? Hasn’t the Ukraine war shown that most of their tech is c***?
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yaaro_obba_ Mar 31, 2026 +10
Because they performed well in last year's India Pakistan skirmishes.
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Jatobi1993 Mar 31, 2026 -7
Not exactly a high bar.
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Spirited-Grab3182 Mar 31, 2026 +10
it is not a single hit inside Indian territory by the pakistanis this particular russian product is a rather brilliant product its just that u need to use with an elaborate system of other air defence units to extracts its true potential we've been able to achieve precisely this
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hextreme2007 Mar 31, 2026 +3
But they look good enough to prevent Ukrainian planes from flying to Moscow and dropping bombs into Kremlin, right?
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elmor2k Mar 31, 2026 +11
The title is misleading, the entire procurement is estimated at 25 Billion USD , it includes cost for procurement of homegrown Drones and stuff
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Sam_Fisher91 Mar 30, 2026 +24
Clickbait title. Order includes Medium Transport Aircraft which is not coming from Russia
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ChipsAhoy2022 Mar 30, 2026 +61
Unverified sources and no official word from buyer or the seller
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Dragoeth1 Mar 30, 2026 -28
The source is India themselves publicly announcing the approval of funds for the purchase, they stated their intent for years to make this purchase, and Russia and India are joint weapons developers. Also India already has the S-400 system as they signed a contract for initial units in 2018 and they were delivered a few years ago.
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ChipsAhoy2022 Mar 30, 2026 +18
We are discussing source of this article reporting a brand new purchase in 2026. There are no confirmed acknowledgement from India or Russia about any new S400 purchases in 2026. Any current payments or fulfillments in 2026 are in line with previous agreements, predating Op Sindoor. This articles originates from a Ukrainian report with no basis or credible information on a new purchase and a likely misinterpretation of recent approvals for proposal for more hardware which isn’t same actual orders. Indian bureaucracy at its finest! Many Indian news outlets are using this article to create hour long programs for viewership, in line with their other low quality journalism.
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Dragoeth1 Mar 30, 2026 -11
Source of the articles is Reuters who is reporting their source being the Indian ministry approving funds for purchase. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/india-clears-military-purchase-proposals-worth-25-billion-2026-03-27/ I would assume it was included in the spending bill passed on Friday as that's what was reported.
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ChipsAhoy2022 Mar 30, 2026 +9
Its proposals that are approved by the govt There are no new purchases announced as of March 2026 These articles are designed to trick you into believing something what the media wants vs what actually happened on the ground
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Future-Analyst-6677 Mar 31, 2026 +2
The funds approval is for sooooo many things, of which just a part of which is additional S400 batteries. This article and the Reuters one is trying to portray that the funds for the medium transport aircraft (most likely Brazilian embraer c399 or airbus a400m), the drones to be purchased from Israel, the USA and primarily India itself in the case of drones, and various other equipment, is all to come from Russia. This is prima facie classic misinformation and propaganda.
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ChipsAhoy2022 Mar 31, 2026 +2
Well said Unfortunately the prime news outlets nowadays pump out misinformation click bait articles in light of dwindling viewership and profit margins When this happens, the actual news gets lost in misinterpreted headlines and public gets rage baited into believing something which is not the ground reality. Combine that with nationalistic fever and thirst for proving yourself superior (happening all across nations) the motives of these headlines become strengthening one side of the equation rather than reporting the truth.
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Worldly_Ad_3254 Mar 30, 2026 +32
Lmao, stupid propaganda, sure additional s400 is one of the purchases but most of the money is going to our own drones (ghataks if im guessing) and the medium transport aircraft tender, this article doesnt mention any of it. (reuters is not a source), these guys need to put more effort in these stuff.
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Future-Analyst-6677 Mar 31, 2026 +2
Exactly ghatak and probably c390 from Brazil, and some other drones from Israel, only the S400 is from Russia but they tacked the whole purchase as from Russia. even Reuters has sunk to the level of daily mail now with these misleading headlines.
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oneloveforeva Mar 30, 2026 +30
The source for this "news" is a Ukrainian Govt funded website.
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Horat1us_UA Mar 30, 2026 +7
Yeah, and that site lists Reuters as source.
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IamSunka Mar 31, 2026 +5
Well, Reuters clearly says it's for a list of things. But this news article decided to report in a way that all the money is used for S400 purchase. Also, the S400 order was placed back in 2019, which is being delivered now.
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Mysterious_Past6277 Mar 31, 2026 +3
Propaganda knows no side in war. 
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FitMetal509 Mar 31, 2026 +1
Excellent whose paying the tax for this
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macross1984 Mar 30, 2026 +1
Russia would dearly love to receive 25 billion but forget to deliver.
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CarneyVore14 Mar 31, 2026 +1
So India is chummy with Russia and Iran, both in conflict with the USA. Yet many US companies rely on people and infrastructure in India. This has always seemed like something that could crash real quickly.
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Wambo74 Mar 30, 2026 -2
Maybe Iran can sell them misc pieces of S-400s for spare parts.
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Future-Analyst-6677 Mar 31, 2026 +3
Iran doesn’t use S400, at least there are no official or even unofficial reports of them receiving or using it, and I don’t think Russia is going to give such expensive equipment away for free, give they need both the equipment and the money from selling it.
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Wambo74 Mar 31, 2026 +1
Can't vouch for this one way or the other. [https://demstate.com/article/russia-airlifts-military-equipment-including-s-400-system-to-iran?utm\_source=chatgpt.com](https://demstate.com/article/russia-airlifts-military-equipment-including-s-400-system-to-iran?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
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3e_Design Mar 30, 2026 -7
that's a bad buy; Venezuela had those and they didnt do anything.
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PastCryptographer244 Mar 31, 2026 +2
India have veey different set up than Venezuela. Its a multi layered air defence system.
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Top-Helicopter-7997 Mar 31, 2026 +2
A single S-300VM, some Tor-M2Es and iglas against F-35s. What can go wrong?
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WolfGuptaofficial Mar 31, 2026
source seems be some ukrainian. that makes it very doubtful here
0
isekai_cheese Mar 30, 2026 -34
lmao what a waste. they should buy food for their starving population
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BojackInMan Mar 30, 2026 +17
You should use your daddy's money to buy some brain instead of wasting it on your delulu drugs😡
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isekai_cheese Mar 30, 2026 -19
you sound like you're starving. eat some food feed your brain.
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BojackInMan Mar 31, 2026 +14
You even heard the sound of the words i never said Delulu drug is working 😏
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isekai_cheese Mar 31, 2026 -14
look at you trying to use zoomer lingo. cringy
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porculdeguinea Mar 30, 2026 -28
What is buying weapons from terorist countries these day? EDIT: so people downvoting are ok with buying weapons from ruzzia?
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JustAConfusedFella Mar 30, 2026 +24
As opposed to buying weapons from countries which bomb middle eastern kids?
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No-AI-Comment Mar 31, 2026 +16
Also don't forget kidnapped a leader of a nation just to get their oil.
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__valhalla_ Mar 31, 2026 +17
let us not forget the aid they provide to the flag bearer of peace and safety Pakistan
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sumregulaguy Mar 30, 2026 -28
Welcome to any news related to India. There's a bunch of pro-Russia shills and Indians with fragile ego down voting everything that is remotely critical of India, Russia, or relationship between the two.
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No-AI-Comment Mar 31, 2026 +18
This news is about India and Russia what are western bots doing here.
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Nearby_Landscape2553 Apr 1, 2026 +1
This news article is pure propaganda listing its source as a Ukrainian site. There is a long list of items being bought. And the S-400 quoted was bought in 2019 which is being delivered now. Typical war propaganda.
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sumregulaguy Apr 1, 2026 +1
It cites [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/india-clears-military-purchase-proposals-worth-25-billion-2026-03-27/)
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Nearby_Landscape2553 Apr 1, 2026 +1
Reuters states all the items being bought. This news article suggests 25B are being spent on S400.
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west_tn_guy Mar 31, 2026 -6
This is just a bribe to Russia. Not sure what they bought for $25B, but Russia isn’t sending any S400 systems abroad for many years to come. But I’m pretty sure India will pay in advance.
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Secure-Way1919 Mar 31, 2026 +1
Russia is delivering one in probably next month or so. USA has been the one unreliable supplier so far. India is still waiting for GE-404 engines.
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Jman1a Mar 31, 2026 -2
Oil?
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Jackadullboy99 Mar 30, 2026 -13
All the little Hitlers (Trump included) are racing to defeat one another…. and taking the whole World down with them.
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Mukarsis Mar 30, 2026 -16
The S400s that are repeatedly smoked by Ukranian drones? Seems like a great investment.
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SuspectSad4878 Mar 30, 2026 +24
I think in the recent conflict India had, S400+other indian air defense systems were really useful.
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Khamvom Mar 30, 2026 +9
The S400 itself isn’t a bad system and can actually be really effective when employed *properly* in an integrated air-defense network. The problem is Iran and Russia don’t know how to use them. Literally user error.
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Live-Count4014 Mar 31, 2026 +1
Russia is dog shit in terms of integration. Hope that resolved your dilemma
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Natural_Ad_9570 Mar 30, 2026 -34
pls take your ppl from EU as well and send them to ru as well, we don't like them at all.
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No_Tree_8144 Mar 31, 2026 +8
theres indians in the EU? theres barely a million right??
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Dedicated_idiot Mar 30, 2026 +15
Protest against your laws to your own govt then. Why should India curtail our freedom? Kick them out. I thought EU was the beacon of democracy. Your govt surely listens to you? So go ask your own govt instead of asking the Indian govt.
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TraditionalPen2076 Apr 1, 2026 +1
How are we supposed to take them away? Tell your govt to send them back you dimwitted f***
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