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India concerned over 'very high price' of American missile shield for Delhi
Feb. 17, 2020

India is concerned over the "very high price" of the American missile shield it wants to use to protect the national capital against the threat of 9/11-type attacks by enemy aircraft, cruise missiles and drones.

The American government had last week approved the Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS) for around $1.9 billion including different types of radars and missiles systems on the request of the Indian Air Force under a government-to-government Foreign Military Sales request.

"The project has been approved by the Americans at around $1.9 billion which is almost double the price at which we were anticipating it to be. We are concerned over the high cost of acquisition and we may have to look at other options also," government sources told ANI here.

India had expressed interest in buying the system to replace the existing Russian systems which have been deployed for many years now for protecting the possible targets including VVIPs in New Delhi as part of Indian Air Force's (IAF's) Delhi Area Defence project.

Sources said the issue is expected to come up for discussion with the American side during the visit of US President Donald Trump who is visiting Ahmedabad and New Delhi on February 24-25.