- Final battery under 2018 deal expected this autumn as Moscow separately offers New Delhi five additional squadrons and India moves to replenish missile stocks used during Operation Sindoor
NEW DELHI 5 SEPTEMBER 2026 (Agencies) – Russia is set to hand over the fifth and final S-400 Triumf air defence system to India in November, completing a $5.43 billion contract signed between the two countries in 2018, according to a Hindustan Times report.
The government-to-government agreement was formally signed on October 5, 2018, during a bilateral summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi, covering five S-400 squadrons in total. The original schedule called for all five systems to be delivered by 2023, but the timeline was pushed back by roughly three years because of supply chain disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. The first system was delivered in December 2021, the second in July 2022, and the third between late 2022 and early 2023, with all three subsequently deployed and integrated into the Indian Air Force. The fourth system faced years of delay before finally arriving around mid-May this year, following a pre-shipment inspection completed by the Indian Air Force and transport by sea.
The fourth battery has been positioned in the Rajasthan sector to strengthen India’s aerial defence posture along the western front, adding to earlier deployments in Punjab and the eastern theatre. The fifth and final system, once delivered in November, is likely to be deployed in the middle sector facing China, according to the Hindustan Times report, rounding out a layered air defence network spanning the country’s western, eastern and northern approaches.
The S-400’s was widely used during Operation Sindoor in May last year, India’s military conflict with Pakistan. Pakistan claims the Pakistan Air Force had struck an S-400 radar and command centre at Adampur airbase in Punjab using JF-17 armed with CMK-400 missile, citing satellite imagery of the base as evidence. India rejected the claim as false.
That operational track record has fed into two separate follow-on developments. Russia has offered India five more squadrons of S-400 systems beyond the current contract, though a final decision is contingent on cost negotiations, according to the report. Separately, and more concretely, India’s Defence Acquisition Council has approved the Acceptance of Necessity for the purchase of 288 S-400 missiles from Russia at a cost of roughly 10,000 crore rupees, around 1.1 billion dollars, covering 120 short-range and 168 long-range missiles intended to replenish stocks consumed during Operation Sindoor. That missile purchase, distinct from any new squadron order, remains at the approval stage and still requires financial clearance and sign-off from the Cabinet Committee on Security before a contract can be signed.
Dmitry Shugayev, head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, has said earlier that further supplies of S-400 systems to India remain possible. Moscow has also reaffirmed its commitment to the agreed delivery timeline following recent meetings between India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Russian counterpart Andrey Belousov.