Former Army Chief General VK Singh, before stepping down, had written a secret letter to the defence minister AK Anthony saying Indian Army lacked a lot of basic warfare gear such as ammunition for tanks. He had also stated that the tanks in use were night blind as they were not equipped with thermal imaging sensors. The Army Chief stressed that the force had enough ammunition only for three-to four days of combat.

Taking stock of the situation, Anthony conducted a series of meeting with senior officials and ammunition for tanks was made a priority. The current supplier, Israeli Military Industries (IMI) had been blacklisted (over graft charges) forcing the government to look elsewhere for the requisite hardware.

Indigenous tank ammunition manufactured by DRDO has not found favour with the army and hence shells will be procured from abroad.  India has now narrowed down its options and is looking to Russia to help fulfill its ammunition shortage. The deal, rumoured to be close to 1 billion dollars, is one of the largest contracts of its type anywhere in the world. India is looking to buy at least 75,000 to 1,00,000 tank and artillery shells.

“The first round of negotiations on the delivery of 3UBK20 (Mango) tank ammunition has been completed and the second round - on its licensed manufacture in India - will start on Monday,” Rosoboronexport (Russia’s state-run arms exporter) deputy head Igor Sevastyanov told RIA Novosti. The deal also includes anti-tank missiles.

Sevastyanov also added that Russia was transferring technology regarding Smerch multi barrel rocket system ammunition to India which would eventually produce the advanced artillery rockets indigenously. According to the Hindu, “Smerch (Tornado) fires 300-mm rockets powered by solid fuel engines to distances in the 20-90-km range. The rockets are 7.6 metres long and weigh 800 kg, including a 100-kg warhead. India has 42 Smerch launchers.”

Indo-Russian military cooperation began in earnest in the late 1960s after the Sino-Indian war. Russia (then USSR) provided India with state of the art defence systems for cheap prices including, in one instance, accepted sugar as payment for MiG-21 fighter planes.

In 1971, East Pakistan initiated an effort to secede from West Pakistan. India supported this move as its economy was being burdened by Bangladeshi immigrants displaced by the genocide/pogrom conducted by the forces of West Pakistan. The United State openly supported Pakistan and even sent its seventh fleet (led by USS Enterprise) to the Bay of Bengal in hopes of pressuring India to a ceasefire and bringing it to the diplomatic table. In response the erstwhile Soviet Union dispatched its Black Sea fleet (led by a nuclear submarine) to respond to the threat created by the presence of the American seventh fleet. This move restrained the Americans allowing India to finish the war on its terms.

Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, the erstwhile Soviet Union remained India’s largest military goods supplier. Their help did not end there. The USSR also used its veto powers to support India not once, but thrice.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, military supplies to India became lesser and lesser due to the lack of funding in the arms industry by the Russian government. Inordinate delays and exorbitant prices forced India to look elsewhere for its military needs.

After the Pokhran II tests in 1998, US led sanctions made life difficult for the armed forces but Russia kept supplying weaponry to India, despite the sanctions. In fact, nuclear fuel for India’s reactors came exclusively from Russia as India was not considered a de facto nuclear state until the India-US civilian nuclear deal resulting in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) granting a waiver to India on September 6, 2008 allowing it to access civilian nuclear technology and fuel from other countries. The deal is now on the backburner as American companies have problems with the nuclear liability issue.

Russia on the other hand has has actively taken part in India’s nuclear program. It is building two reactors at the Kudankulam power plant and regularly supplies enriched Uranium for Indian reactors. Russia also helped India miniaturise a reactor to fit into the hull of its under-construction nuclear submarine INS Arihant.

There have been some hiccups in the bilateral relationship with Russia demanding exorbitant prices for refitting the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov. Threatened by competition, it also hiked the price for T-90 tanks and Su-30mki aircraft after India started dealing with Israel in a big way for arms and ammunition.

There have also been reports of Pakistan trying to cozy up to Russia to negate Indian influence in the aftermath of recent Indian defence deals which did not go the Russian way. But Pakistan’s main ally is China, which shares a border with Russia and lays claim to a lot of land currently under Russian control which in hindsight makes Russia wary about reciprocating Pakistan’s gestures. Russia even denied Pakistan use of its engines for the latter's JF-17 fighter planes.

The Indo-Russian relationship which had come close to being derailed in the wake of Admiral Gorshkov’s pricing, is now back on track. Russia still remains India’s number one military supplier and this ammunition deal could go a long way assuring both the nations remain firm and steadfast friends in the years to come.