As the Indian economy clocks a steady 9% plus growth rate and the country’s foreign exchange touches new peaks, the Indian government is waking up to the need of giving a boost to the armoury of its armed forces.

The ageing MIG 21s are crashing at rate of one or two every month. The Jaguars and Mirage 2000s are becoming obsolete by the day. There is a need to beef up India’s naval power too. Russia is taking ages to supply the Gorshchov aircraft carrier.

Pakistan is in a volatile situation. China keeps making awkward situations about Arunachal Pradesh. The DRDO is proving itself to be inadequate to meet the hardware needs of the country in the new security environment. Besides Prithvi and Agni, the other missiles have not made the grade.

All this has forced the Indian government to go in massive arms purchases from the international arms market. The Russians had been the steady supplier of India’s arms needs, but the fall of the Soviet Union has changed the scenario. Cash hungry Russia has withdrawn the Soviet times’ favourable prices of arms. Also, Russian companies have proved to be undependable in supplies.

So India is looking westward for its needs. Israel has proved to be a reliable supplier of some of the defence requirements. Major arms exporting countries are eyeing India in anticipation of massive orders.

India’s ambitions of becoming self-reliant in arms production have been thwarted to a certain extent by the failure of the state run DRDO to keep pace with changing technology. The good news is that the government has given the green signal to the Indian private sector to go into defence production. Going by the track record of Indian companies, they will soon stand up to the challenges of meeting India’s defence requirements.

Source: Time