{"id":203,"date":"2026-03-28T14:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T14:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/?p=203"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:51:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:51:57","slug":"india-clears-25bn-defence-buys-including-russian-s-400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/28\/india-clears-25bn-defence-buys-including-russian-s-400\/","title":{"rendered":"India clears $25bn defence buys, including Russian S-400"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>ISLAMABAD<\/strong>: India has approved defence purchases worth about $25 billion, the defence ministry said, including additional Russian-made S-400 long-range missile systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The approvals were given by the Defence Acquisition Council, led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, according to a statement issued late on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ministry said it has cleared 55 proposals worth 6.73 trillion Indian rupees ($71bn) in the 2025-26 financial year so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has also signed capital procurement contracts worth 2.28tr Indian rupees ($25bn), the highest in a single fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the air force, the approved items include new medium transport aircraft to replace old AN-32 and IL-76 planes, additional S-400 air defence systems, drones and upgrades to Su-30 fighter jet engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although India has expanded defence purchases from the United States, France and Israel in recent years, the new S-400 orders and Su-30 upgrades indicate that Russia remains an important defence supplier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The S-400 system will \u201ccounter enemy long-range air\u201d threats, while the \u201cRemotely Piloted Strike Aircraft\u201d, or armed drones, will be capable of both attack and surveillance, the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the army, the council approved an air defence tracking system, armour-piercing tank ammunition, radios, artillery, and an aerial surveillance system for battlefield monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD: India has approved defence purchases worth about $25 billion, the defence ministry said, including additional Russian-made S-400 long-range missile systems. The approvals were given by the Defence Acquisition Council, led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, according to a statement issued late on Friday. The ministry said it has cleared 55 proposals worth 6.73 trillion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[26],"class_list":{"0":"post-203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-food"},"authors":[{"term_id":26,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"diplo_08h0gvsn","display_name":"admin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e6cf434bc1a9c23b46b4bf3de554fd867925e08143ff250e042337cade11b3ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}