India, Russia ink pact for tank ammunition

New Delhi: Against the backdrop of the Army chief highlighting critical shortage of shells for armoured regiments, a defence ministry report today said a contract was signed with Russia in 2010 for 16,000 rounds of ammunition for T-90 tanks. In its annual report issued today, the defence ministry said a contract for procurement of 66,000 rounds of ammunition for 84 mm rocket launchers was signed in March last year with Swedish Saab.[caption id=“attachment_270598” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“T90 Battle Tank. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] “A contract for procurement of 16,000 rounds of FSAPDS ammunition for tank T-90was signed with Rosoboronexport, Russia in December 2010. It became effective in March, 2011, and the complete consignment is likely to be delivered by March, 2012,” the report said. In a recent letter, Army chief General VK Singh had pointed out the poor state of defence preparedness saying tank regiments were short of ammunition and 97 percent of the Army Air Defence equipment was obsolete. On the AAD, the defence ministry report said the contract for procuring Akash Missile Systems was signed last year and steps were being taken for upgrading Self-propelled Air Defence and Schilka air defence systems. PTI