| Russia has started deliveries of Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems to India. The $150 million deal was signed last December. Under the contract signed with Rosoboronexport arms exporting monopoly Urals based company Motovilikhinskiye Zavody will provide about 30 modernised Smerch systems to arm three regiments of the Indian Army, Indian media reported. Smerch sales to India have been under negotiation since the late 1990s. The rockets with inbuilt gyroscopes for perfect homing at the target are said to be world leaders in their class, have a range of up to 70 km and can be armed with a wide range of conventional warheads including deadly thermo-baric (vacuum) capable of destroying enemy personnel sheltered in reinforced concrete bunkers and pill-boxes, said a spokesman of the Smerch designer Tula-based Splav company. |