(MRF.NS)<\/a>.<\/p>\nIndia aims to produce as much as half its defence equipment at home, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
The defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on India’s reliance on Moscow for military hardware and whether the war in Ukraine and Russia’s slow progress, were concerns.<\/p>\n
Brahma Chellaney, a defence and strategic affairs analyst in New Delhi, said Russian equipment have served India well in the past though in recent years it has stepped up purchases from countries such as the United States, France and Israel.<\/p>\n
“Defence transition is always a slow evolutionary process. You can’t overnight switch suppliers,” he said.<\/p>\n
India employs 1.38 million people in its armed forces and is one of the world’s largest arms importers, spending $12.4 billion between 2018 and 2021, with Russia accounting for $5.51 billion, the SIPRI Arms Transfers Database shows.<\/p>\n
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 formerly part of the Russian naval fleet.<\/p>\n
In recent months, some of India’s Western partners, including Britain and the United States, have signalled a willingness to enhance their defence offerings to New Delhi.<\/p>\n
THREE-PRONGED APPROACH<\/h2>\n
The army, which expends considerable effort guarding India’s lengthy borders with China and Pakistan, having fought wars with both neighbours, is working on a three-pronged approach to maintain readiness, the second government official said.<\/p>\n
The government is examining which eastern European nations use weapons and platforms similar to the Indian military, and might provide spares and ammunitions.<\/p>\n
“In case (Russian) supply lines are strained, we have alternative options,” said the official, who sought anonymity as the matter is sensitive.<\/p>\n
Indian authorities are also urging Russian counterparts to deliver on some key projects already agreed, the official added.<\/p>\n
These include supplying S-400 missile systems and a deal to produce more than 600,000 Kalashnikov AK-203 assault rifles at a new factory in northern India.<\/p>\n
Some Indian firms are already feeling the impact of the push to diversify and indigenise.<\/p>\n
At PLR Systems, a joint venture of conglomerate the Adani Group and Israel Weapon Industries, which makes small arms in India, enquiries for assault rifles have increased since the Ukraine conflict, an industry source said.<\/p>\n
PLR Systems offers the Israel-designed Galil ACE assault rifle as a replacement for Russian Kalashnikov weapons.<\/p>\n
“The demand for rifles is from states and the central armed police forces also,” said the source, who declined to be identified as the discussions were private. “Right now, none of them can get it from outside.”<\/p>\n
($1=77.8130 rupees)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India is looking to domestic firms and eastern European nations for military gear and ammunition, as the world’s biggest buyer of Russian arms seeks alternative suppliers at a time when Moscow is fighting a war with Ukraine and facing sanctions. New Delhi has long talked of diversifying the suppliers to its huge armed forces, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":22064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,12],"tags":[8843,11363,9747,11830,5522,8217,183,5307,7960,7893,10767,10391,12257,11337,8476,9505,11365,5575,2264,5440,8342,5252,3095,9463,5572,5254,5340,12085,10349,11973,6332,3042,8386,421,3457,5217,6629,5713,6630,5376,5180,9262,6348,5251,13067,5724,36,594],"class_list":["post-22063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","category-world-news","tag-air-force","tag-aircraft","tag-ammunition","tag-armed-forces","tag-arms","tag-army","tag-assault","tag-britain","tag-case","tag-chain","tag-conflict","tag-declined","tag-delhi","tag-demand","tag-ejection","tag-european","tag-factory","tag-france","tag-government","tag-india","tag-indian","tag-invasion","tag-israel","tag-jets","tag-military","tag-missile","tag-moscow","tag-nations","tag-navy","tag-one","tag-online","tag-pakistan","tag-platform","tag-police","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-russian-kalashnikov-weapons","tag-sanctions","tag-sukhoi-fighter-jets-and-mi-17","tag-tanks","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-war","tag-wars","tag-weapons","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}