New Delhi: India’s government said on Tuesday it had approved three proposals worth 42.76 billion rupees ($523.03 million) to procure equipment for its army and navy.
The country has long been building and modifying its conventional weapons as Sweden-based institute Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) last year ranked India as the world’s most armed in its annual report. What were the importing countries?
India is also looking to domestic firms and Eastern European countries for military equipment and ammunition, as the world’s biggest buyer of Russian arms looks for alternative suppliers at a time when Moscow is at war with Ukraine. And it faces restrictions.
New Delhi has long talked about diversifying the suppliers of its large armed forces, and even making more equipment at home, goals that have taken on new urgency since the Russian invasion, two government officials said. And a defense source said last year.
India has identified 25.15 billion ($324 million) worth of defense equipment it wants domestic firms to make in 2022, according to an online platform where the defense ministry lists its requirements, from buying abroad. Avoid.
“The current global order and geopolitical landscape, which is very, very turbulent, has also taught us a lesson,” Air Marshal Vibhas Pandey, who heads maintenance operations for the Indian Air Force, said early last year. said
“If we want to provide certainty and stability, the only option is to establish a fully self-reliant or self-sustaining supply chain mechanism within the country,” Pandey told defense industrialists in New Delhi.
However, he did not specifically mention the Ukraine conflict, which Moscow describes as a ‘special military operation’.
The Indian Air Force is seeking equipment such as ejection pods for Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets and propellers for Ukrainian-made Antonov transport aircraft, another document showed.
Within three years, the air force aims to source all tires and batteries for its main aircraft fleet from domestic firms such as MRF ( MRF.NS ), Pandey said.
India aims to manufacture half of its defense equipment at home, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.
The defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on India’s reliance on Moscow for military equipment and whether the war in Ukraine and Russia’s slow progress were concerns.
Brahma Chelani, a defense and strategic affairs analyst in New Delhi, said Russian equipment has served India well in the past, although in recent years it has increased purchases from countries such as the US, France and Israel.
“Defense transition is always a slow evolutionary process. You can’t change suppliers overnight,” he said.
India employs 1.38 million people in its armed forces and is one of the world’s largest arms importers, spending $12.4bn between 2018 and 2021, with Russia contributing $5.51bn, according to SIPRI Arms. The transfer database shows.
The Indian Army is equipped with Russian-made tanks and Kalashnikov rifles. Its air force uses Sukhoi fighter jets and Mi-17 transport helicopters, while the navy’s aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya was previously part of the Russian fleet.
Earlier last year, some of India’s western partners, including Britain and the US, signaled their willingness to increase their defense offer to New Delhi.
A three-dimensional approach
The army, which does much to protect India’s long borders with China and Pakistan, has fought wars with both neighbors, working on a three-pronged approach to maintain readiness, another government official said. has been
The government is examining which weapons and platforms that Eastern European countries use that are similar to the Indian Army and can provide spares and ammunition.
“If the (Russian) supply lines are strained, we have alternative options,” said the official, who asked not to be named because the matter is sensitive.
The official added that the Indian authorities are also urging their Russian counterparts to complete some key projects that have already been agreed upon.
These include the supply of the S-400 missile system and a contract to manufacture 600,000 Kalashnikov AK-203 assault rifles at a new factory in northern India.
Some Indian firms are already feeling the effects of diversification and localization pressures.
PLR Systems, a joint venture between Adani Group and Israel Weapons Industries, which makes small arms in India, has seen an increase in inquiries for assault rifles since the Ukraine conflict, an industry source said.
PLR Systems offers the Israeli-designed Galil ACE assault rifle as an alternative to Russian Kalashnikov weapons.
“The demand for rifles is also from states and central armed police forces,” said the source, who declined to be identified as the conversation was private. “None of them can take it from the outside right now.”
India-Russia joint venture
An India-Russia joint venture to build a nuclear-capable supersonic cruise missile hopes to win $5 billion in orders by 2025, its chairman said, following its first export deal with the Philippines last year worth $375 million. Signed.
BrahMos Aerospace is in talks with Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam for new orders, Chairman Atul D Rane said. Reuters companion ANI.
The joint venture, with 50.5% Indian and 49.5% Russian participation, fits into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Make in India programme.
India has built Russian MiG fighter jets and Su-30 jets under license and both have contributed to India’s development of BrahMos missiles.
In April last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the two countries were discussing “additional” production of Russian military equipment in India.
India, which has not explicitly condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine, has emerged as Moscow’s second-biggest oil buyer after China as Indian refiners snap up discounted Russian oil that some Western buyers hold back. is given
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of achieving $5 billion (in defense exports) by 2025. I hope BrahMos itself will be able to reach the target of $5 billion by 2025,” Rane said. .
India’s defense forces currently use the BrahMos supersonic surface-to-surface missile, which can be launched from land, sea and sub-sea platforms.