I cannot join issues with you on this. Indeed, product support and maintenance are of paramount importance to India-Russia defence ties and yes, there is still a long way to go in terms of improvement. However, it is a complex issue made up of many components such as spares supply, logistics, service and maintenance work, upgrade and overhaul. At all stages of product support we are facing problems on both sides that should be tackled jointly by Russia and India. It would be wrong to say that the buck stops with Russia only.

The tender system launched in India some years back makes the ‘last purchase price’, the policy for procurement of spares. It does not take into account whether the winner of the tender is supplying good quality, original spares or not. Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian and even Israeli producers quote low prices but can’t guarantee proper technology and high performance of their spare parts, with some of the spares being second-hand. As their winning the tenders is based purely on the price they offer, this affects the product life-cycle support in a negative way.

A possible solution could be signing long-term contracts with the Indian Army, Navy and the Air Force that would enable our producers to plan their production volumes accordingly for a longer period and would also help keep the price offered by Russian original equipment manufacturers as low as possible.

Another important step could be signing a comprehensive service agreement based on the ‘one window’ principle for all major defence platforms (aircraft, helicopters, naval, engines, tanks and armour vehicles as well as anti-missile defence). It could help us establish more transparent, direct and fast product support. Unfortunately, we have not yet reached a full understanding on the matter, despite the fact that it is in the best interest of the Indian MoD and would help keep the Russian origin equipment in full capability.