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RF offers India to buy BMP-3 vehicles shelving homemade FICV project

This has more sense for India, as its homemade Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicle can be commissioned no earlier than in ten years’ time
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

NEW DELHI, December 21 (Itar-Tass) — Russia offers India to buy its infantry combat vehicles BMP-3 and shelve its own analogous project that has got stalled, the website of the Indian Defense News reported on Friday.

Russia has offered to transfer BMP-3 combat vehicle technology to India if India cancels its project, an Indian Defense Ministry source said. This has more sense for India, as its homemade Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) can be commissioned no earlier than in ten years’ time.

The FICV project was approved four years ago and has seen practically no progress since that. It envisages the production of 2,600 vehicles to replace the older BMP-2 combat vehicles. The project costs about ten billion dollars, while the government will fund 80 percent of development costs.

At the present moment, India has in arsenal about 1,500 BMP-2 combat vehicles.