From T-72 Tanks to S-500 Missiles: The Enduring India-Russia Defence Alliance

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-day State visit to India reaches a key point on 5 December, when extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi focus on the India-Russia relationship, signalling that New Delhi has not dropped Moscow despite American pressure, including punitive tariffs linked to Indian purchases of Russian crude.

India did not always lean on Russia for military hardware. After independence, New Delhi sourced most arms from Britain and other Western nations. That pattern shifted from the 1950s, as India diversified suppliers and turned towards Moscow for aircraft and other crucial equipment.

India-Russia defence partnership and current arms import trends

Even with the 'Make in India’ defence programme, Russia stays central to India’s arsenal. A recent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report states that India accounts for 8.3 per cent of global arms imports during 2020–24, making India the world’s second-largest importer in that period.

According to the same Sipri assessment, Russia supplied the largest share of India’s imported weapons in 2024, at 36 per cent. That share is falling; Russian systems formed 55 per cent of India’s imports in 2015–19 and 72 per cent in 2010–14, showing slow but steady diversification.

India-Russia defence partnership and major platforms in Indian service

India’s move towards Soviet hardware began early. The first Russian-origin induction came in 1950, when the Ilyushin Il-14 cargo aircraft joined Indian Armed Forces transport fleets. Later that decade, India obtained Soviet An-12 transport aircraft, Mi-4 helicopters and M-160 mm mortars, useful for operations in mountainous regions.

Another crucial acquisition followed in 1963, when the Indian Air Force brought in the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21. The jet later formed the backbone of the service until its final phase-out in September, flying combat missions in the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan, during the Kargil conflict, and in the 2019 Balakot airstrikes.

Big-ticket naval and armoured platforms also came from Moscow. India’s first aircraft carrier in active service, INS Vikramaditya, is a modified Soviet Kiev-class vessel that joined the Indian Navy in 2013. The country’s primary battle tanks, the T-72M1 and T-90S, both trace their origin to Russian design and production.

Submarines represent another core element of this cooperation. India’s first underwater platform from the USSR, a Foxtrot Class submarine, entered service in 1967 as INS Kalvari. Of the Indian Navy’s 16 conventional diesel-electric submarines, eight are Kilo class boats, all built to Soviet specifications.

Infantry weapons were not ignored. India has long used AK-47 pattern rifles from Russia, and both countries signed a deal to locally manufacture AK-203 rifles at a facility in Amethi. The arrangement ties front-line small arms supply to a joint production base on Indian soil.

India-Russia defence partnership in missiles and air defence

Missile development has been shaped by close India-Russia cooperation. The BrahMos programme began after an Inter-Governmental Agreement in 1998, which created BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia. The name combines the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, symbolising joint ownership.

BrahMos Aerospace received a mandate to design, develop and manufacture a supersonic, high-precision cruise missile and its variants. The missile later showed its destructive capacity when India used BrahMos during Operation Sindoor to hit Pakistani airbases and radar installations, underlining how joint development projects changed India’s strike options.

Air defence ties deepened further with the S-400 Triumf deal. In 2018, India signed an agreement worth around Rs 35,000 crore, roughly $5.4 billion, to acquire five squadrons of the Russian-made long-range air defence missile system, which has since become a pillar of Indian airspace security planning.

This purchase gained additional attention because it proceeded despite possible United States sanctions. In 2017, US President Donald Trump signed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act into law, targeting Russia, Iran and North Korea, and threatening penalties on countries that conducted significant defence deals with these states.

Future of the India-Russia defence partnership and advanced platforms

India’s domestic manufacturing push has not ended interest in advanced Russian designs. When Putin meets Modi, discussions are expected to cover Russia’s Su-57 fighter programme and India’s potential role. The Su-57 is a fifth-generation stealth aircraft, designed to compete with the American F-35 in air dominance missions.

Moscow has earlier indicated readiness to share technology for the Su-57 with India. Reports also suggest Russia is likely to place its S-500 Prometey air and missile defence system on the agenda. The S-500 is designed to intercept hypersonic weapons and engage enemy aircraft and missiles at very long distances.

Sources indicate Russia is considering India as a partner for co-development of the S-500. In mid-2025, the Kremlin also offered its T-14 Armata main battle tank to New Delhi, pitching it as a candidate to replace India’s ageing T-72 Ajeya fleet and modernise armoured formations.

India-Russia defence partnership and historical wartime support

The strategic depth of this defence relationship rests on Cold War-era support. After India’s defeat in the 1962 war with China, the erstwhile Soviet Union, which included Russia, stepped in with frontline Foxtrot submarines, missile boats, anti-submarine corvettes and MiG-21 supersonic fighters, helping India rebuild depleted capabilities.

These Soviet-supplied platforms played a decisive role in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Missile boats struck Pakistani naval assets, submarines threatened adversary shipping lanes, and MiG-21 fighters delivered air superiority. The experience nurtured trust in Russian-origin systems and encouraged successive governments to continue purchasing from Moscow.

Many analysts now see Putin’s current State visit, and the detailed talks with Modi, as a public reminder of this long-standing partnership. For them, India’s continued defence engagement with Russia sends a firm message to Washington that New Delhi intends to keep strategic choices independent, even while widening other global relationships.