India was the world’s largest importer of arms in the period from 2017 to 2021, along with Saudi Arabia. It accounts for 11 per cent of the total imports across the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This is a huge financial burden, but if a difficult neighbourhood makes it inevitable, manufacturing in India and buying from Indian makers is a sound strategic aim, which also keeps the money at home. China is possibly the second biggest weapon manufacturer in the world after the United States, overtaking Russia to reach that spot. It is the fifth biggest importer in the world, but its procurement from abroad is only a small share of its requirements. Of course, manufacturing weapons is more difficult than making other products. They have to match up to international standards and they have to be made quickly. India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation and the tiny homegrown defence manufacturing sector know better than anyone else the battles over indigenisation of military hardware — insufficient research budgets, closely guarded technologies of foreign manufacturers, delays in delivery, and significantly, lack of faith among the end users, the armed forces, in indigenous hardware. The long saga of the Hindustan Turbo Trainer, the basic trainer aircraft unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at DefExpo, from the drawing board in 2013 to orders from the IAF just last year, is illustrative. But this is changing, with a powerful executive making it the centrepiece of a larger “atmanirbhar Bharat” initiative.
DefExpo 2022’s “Only India ” theme may also have been forced by the circumstances of geopolitics. Russia’s war in Ukraine and India’s neutrality led to the abrupt postponement of the international event originally scheduled in March. But in this revised version, it has provided the government a platform to showcase the progress made on this front. At DefExpo Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated a target of Rs 40,000 cr ($5 billion) annually for defence exports by 2025. State-owned defence manufacturing companies such as HAL must now show 25 per cent of turnover as export. In 2016-17, India’s arms exports were $200 million. In FY 2020-21, they had increased more than five times to $1.54 billion. The sale of the India-Russia joint venture Brahmos to the Philippines accounted for the spike. Platforms such as the Light Combat Helicopter, launched last month, could also kindle international interest.
India will need a huge infusion of funds into research, massive technological strides, zero error quality, and the involvement of the private sector. Most of all, it will need the backing and support of India’s armed forces. The yearly expansion of a “positive list”, that is, items that the armed forces must buy from Indian manufacturers only, is a step in the right direction.
