July 10, 2012: It was recently revealed that India had, earlier this year, signed a deal to buy a billion dollars-worth of ammunition from Russia. It was all for the army and included artillery and tank gun shells as well as anti-tank and missiles and large unguided rockets. This deal also includes setting up production lines in India to produce Russian ammo using Russian production techniques.
This deal was kept quiet because India already produces most of the ammunition types recently ordered from Russia, but its factories are not efficient enough to produce large quantities on command.
Russian factories certainly need the work, as large orders from the Russian Army have been nearly non-existent for the last two decades. These manufacturers have stayed in business with export sales. Business is expected to pick now as most of the Cold War era munitions reach the age where they are too unstable to use. Russia is still disposing (disassembling and recycling) large quantities of Cold War ammo and has announced that once this is completed, large orders for new ammo will be placed.
