Helicopters crash, missiles miss their target, contracts cancelled What's wrong with India's arms?

The latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIRPI) says India has remained the largest importer of major weapons in the world. According to the institute, New Delhi has purchased weapons worth more than $60 billion over the past 20 years. The country accounts for 11 per cent of the world's arms imports.

In July this year, Reuters, citing unnamed high-ranking sources in the Indian Defence Ministry, wrote that for the sake of obtaining military technology and developing its own defence industry, the country had increased its arms purchases from the US. The SIRPI report claimed that India's arms imports from France, which earlier stood at 62 combat aircraft and 4 submarines, have increased by 489 per cent as of the end of 2022.

This all goes to show that despite extensive defence programmes and India's desire to become independent of foreign arms concerns, the country cannot meet the needs of its armed forces with domestic arms alone.

In the same SIRPI report, India was removed from the list of top 25 global arms exporters (in the previous report, it was ranked 23rd). It is now ranked 31st for 2018-2022.

According to experts, the main reasons for the decline in Indian arms exports are the decline in the country's domestic technological and production potential, fierce competition between major arms exporters, lack of funding, the presence of corruption in the defence industry and delays in deliveries to foreign buyers.

India's failure to maintain its position among the world's largest arms exporters has also highlighted a number of other long-standing problems with the country's arms production. The main problem here is the lack of experience of Indian manufacturers in arms production, both in terms of quantity and quality. The biggest problem faced by the Indian defence industry is the inability to produce MIC products in a timely manner and meet the military requirements of both foreign buyers and the Indian Army. This is due to the fact that India has traditionally never been an arms-producing country and still has to purchase defence products from abroad in large volumes.

On the other hand, the decline in India's arms exports indicates the low quality of weapons produced by the country. And it shows the failure of the Indian government's plans to develop a domestic arms industry. Despite limited success, the country's defence industries have yet to gain a reputation as large and reliable arms exporters to the world. Technical and mechanical malfunctions, lack of technical and operational support to buyers after contracts have been signed, and the use of substandard technology are the hallmarks of Indian-made weapons.

Quite a few crashes of Indian Air Force aircraft, as well as breakdowns and accidents of Indian military equipment purchased and used by foreign buyers, have created distrust in Indian defence products among foreign buyers. For example, 4 out of 7 Dhruv helicopters procured by Ecuador failed after some time due to mechanical breakdowns. As a result, Ecuador suspended the use of the remaining 3 helicopters and unilaterally cancelled the contract with India.

Between 2022 and 2023, several crashes of these helicopters were also reported in India itself. In 2022, another Rudra helicopter crashed, killing 5 crew members. Till 2019, 46 crashes of Chetak helicopters have been recorded in India. Also last year, a BrahMos missile fell into Pakistani territory due to misfiring and caused a financial loss of $2.29 million. All these incidents have created uncertainty in the decisions of potential customers of Indian weapons.

Besides, India is losing the competition for arms exports in its region as well. In Asia, China ranks first in arms exports. Beijing transfers 54 per cent of its arms exports to Pakistan alone, India's rival. Countries like Myanmar and Sri Lanka, which buy arms from India, also buy large quantities of arms from China as well. So, unlike China, India has not yet found a reliable buyer in the region and is not considered a reliable exporter even among its neighbours.

Having problems with exporting its arms, the government of nationalist Narendra Modi has found a market in Armenia, albeit a small one, which is hatching revanchist plans. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told the country's parliament that his government has signed arms contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars with India. It is difficult to judge how Indian weapons will prove themselves in real combat operations, but the Armenian government should remember that during the 44-day war, the Armenian Armed Forces were not much helped by Russian weapons, which are of an order of magnitude higher quality than their Indian counterparts.