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| India-Pakistan |
| Russia offers Tu-22M3 Backfire bombers to India |
| 2005-12-07 |
| According to media sources, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday that Moscow had offered to sell several long-range bombers to India - a deal that would significantly bolster New Delhi's strike capability, news agencies reported. Ivanov said the offer to sell Tu-22M3 bombers to New Delhi was made Tuesday during talks in Moscow with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India hasn''t yet responded to the offer, he said, according to the ITAR-Tass, Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies. Ivanov said India previously had considered leasing the bombers, but the two sides couldn''t finalize the deal because of "technical reasons" he did not specify. The Soviet-designed Tu-22M3 is capable of carrying long-range cruise missiles at almost twice the speed of sound. India has bought more than US$30 billion (A25 billion) worth of Soviet and Russian arms since 1960. In recent years, it has been second only to China as a buyer of Russian weaponry. Russia and India also conducted joint military maneuvers this year, and are discussing working together on a next-generation fighter jet and a medium-range transport aircraft. Military cooperation figured prominently in Singh's talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. |
| Posted by:john |
| #3 I think this is either: a) housecleaning; Putin is holding a fire sale because the Russian military has stuff they can't afford to keep and don't plan to use, or b) arms sales; Putin needs to generate some bidness to keep an assembly line going somewhere. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-12-07 21:20 |
| #2 From UPI Russia has offered India a chance to purchase long-range bombers instead of leasing them as part of an arms deal. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday he offered the deal during Prime Minister Monmohan Singh's visit to Russia, Itar-Tass reports. The deal would include several Tu-22 M-3 bombers. Ivanov said it was a small portion of the arms deal. He said he hasn't gotten a response yet from Singh. |
| Posted by: john 2005-12-07 18:52 |
| #1 Interesting that this comes up along with news of the Akula SSNs. The initial reports of the Gorshkov carrier deal claimed that the Backfires and Akulas were part of the total package. This was subsequently denied. |
| Posted by: john 2005-12-07 18:09 |