New Delhi, Jan 22: The Indian government has finally began the last leg of negotiations with Russia, in order to bolster its air-power. The deal is to buy five advanced S-400 Triumf Air Defence Missile Systems which are worth Rs. 39,000 crores (over $5.5 billion).

Taking a step forward, the Central government is looking to close the deal in the financial year 2018-19. With it, India will be able to acquire one of the five Missile systems, and the remainder of it will be in possession within 54 months after the deal is inked.

The S-400 Triumf Air Defence System can detect, track and destroy hostile strategic bombers, spy planes, missiles and drones at a range up to 400 kilometres and the altitude of 30 kilometres in the airspace.

The deal’s final negotiation comes after the successful trials of the air defence systems in Russia. As per the report by Business Today, “The field evaluation trials of the Russian air defence system have been completed by the Indian Air Force in Russia and they have been quite successful. The trials were conducted on two separate occasions and it performed to the satisfaction of the users.”

The following deal will put India ahead of its contemporaries and put it at par with China. India will be the second country after China, to acquire the modern air-defence systems, as it had inked the deal in the year 2014. It is being reported that India and Russia signed the deal during the year 2016 when Russia President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi met at the 17th India-Russia summit.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 22, 2018 06:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).