New Delhi: With an aim to provide security to vulnerable areas and points from aerial threats, the minister of state for defence Subhash Bhamre said that Russia will start delivering the first of India’s five S-400 missile regiments and will complete the delivery of all five regiments by 2023.

The minister also said that the contract for the delivery of S-400 system from Russia was signed on October 5, 2018 and the deliveries of these are set to commence from October 2020 and will be completed by April 2023.

In a written reply, minister Bhamre informed the Lok Sabha that the system will provide very capable air defence coverage to vulnerable areas and vulnerable points.

The Rs 40,000 crore deal for the acquisition of five regiments of the S-400 defence missile systems was signed by India and Russia for the procurement of such from the Russian Almaz Antey.

India is the second country in Asia after China to use the Russian missile system that can track and destroy multiple targets at a distance between 100 to 380 km.

However, the Indian system is claimed to be far more capable than the Chinese system. China has not been provided the longest-range missile system with a 380 km strike range by Russia. The Indian system has four tiers of strike range with the lowest being around 100 km.