New Delhi:

Russia has offered to sell another five units of the deadly, long-range surface-to-air missile system S-400 ‘Triumf’ in response to a tender for buying the missiles for the Indian Air Force (IAF), sources said.

The missile, renamed as ‘Sudarshan’ in Indian service, performed brilliantly during Operation Sindoor with many successful interceptions of incoming threats launched by Pakistan.

The Russian bid for selling more of these missiles came amid a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan.

The two also discussed and reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation in a range of fields including defence and energy.

The S-400 includes several components including the radar and missiles, whose massive range of up to 400 km can deter enemy aircraft from flying safely even in their own airspace, as had happened with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.

Western Air Command chief Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra, in a podcast with news agency ANI, had said the S-400 achieved what was possibly the longest-ever recorded surface-to-air missile kill when it destroyed a Pakistan Air Force surveillance aircraft at a range of 314 km.

India has so far got four of the five S-400 units ordered under the first contract signed in 2018. The fifth and the last piece is likely to be delivered by November.

The deliveries of the missile systems under the new contract are likely to start in three years from the time of signing the deal. India decided to get five more squadrons of the S-400 system after seeing its performance during Operation Sindoor. The additional units are expected to be deployed along both the eastern and western borders to strengthen the country’s layered air defence network.

Putin’s defence deal basket has room for more hardware like the S-500 Prometheus co-production, Sukhoi-57E Felon stealth jet, Kilo Class submarine with Kalibr cruise missile capability, Voronezh strategic early-warning radar and the Super Sukhoi-30 upgrade programme.