New Delhi, October 18: India is likely to get the first deliveries of S-400 air defence system within two years. “First deliveries are expected within two years,” reported Russian news agency TASS quoting Dmitry Shugaev, head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation as saying. Earlier this month, India signed the deal for the S-400 missile system with Russia during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the country to attend the 19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit.

Reacting to the deal, the United States President Donald Trump said that India would soon find out if the punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) sanctions apply to it or not. The CAATSA was enacted by the US to punish Russia for meddling in 2016 presidential elections. The law also threatens sanctions against third countries for having any security and intelligence relations with Russia.

The S-400 Triumf System missile is an anti-aircraft weapon system developed in the 1990s by Russia's Almaz Central Design Bureau as an upgrade of the S-300 family. The S-400 uses four missiles to fill its performance envelope: the very-long-range 40N6 (400 km), the long-range 48N6 (250 km), the medium-range 9M96E2 (120 km) and the short-range 9M96E (40 km) and has been described as one of the best air-defence systems.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 18, 2018 04:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).