Chennai, April 14: Seven Agreements were signed between India and Russian companies at DefExpo 2018 on Friday in Chennai to indeginise the manufacturing of spare parts of defence products. Forty Eight items covering all major platforms which can be made in India with Russian collaboration have been identified by the ministry of defence. The Indian Armed Forces  are pushing for joint ventures of Indian and Russian companies to give boost to the 'make in India' model.

The third Indian-Russian Military Industrial conference was  held at DefExpo 2018 on Friday. Indian Tri-Services officials, Indian firms and Russian firms had a few rounds of meetings. According to a report published in The Times of India, Rear Admiral and Assistant Chief of Naval Staff V M Doss termed this move as a cost saving as indigenise production of spare parts for the Russian planes being used by the Navy itself would lead to a saving of 400% to 2,000%. Naval Aircraft MIG 29k planes were inducted in 2009 and would be in service till 2037 to 2040.

According to The Times of India, Konstantin Svodin from the department of aviation industry, Russia, said: "We got the list of all platform for which after sales support were needed. Many joint venture agreements were signed during the DefExpo." Svodin further added, "We propose signing of inter-government agreement to do after sales support for planes, helicopters, tanks and air defence systems and also provide a separate JV for making spare parts in India.”

According to a press release, Larsen and Toubro (L&T) and Moscow-based Rosoboron export signed Memorandum of Understanding for developing underwater platforms for Indian Navy. For setting up of technical and logistic support for T 90s and T72 Tanks of the Indian Army City-based Ananth Technologies signed a pact with Research and Production Corporation Uralvagonzavod, press released said.

In another agreement of Ananth Technologies with JSC Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET), product support to develop defence systems and to manufacture spare parts and providing service and maintenance for such items was agreed upon. Similar an agreement was signed between Space Era and Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies to ensure maximum operational availability of SU-30 MKI and Helicopters of MI 8, MI 17 and MI 35 Type helicopters, reported DNA.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 14, 2018 03:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).