India to shelve several arms import deals to promote domestic defence production

The government has begun to reconsider a series of defence procurement contracts signed with foreign countries to push towards Atmnanirbhar (self-reliance) in the domestic defence industry. In keeping with the fast-changing geopolitical situations around the world, government has decided to take bold measures to ensure that country moves firmly towards indigenization of the defence sector to reduce arms imports.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is going to shelve several defence import procurements being acquired through the Buy (Global) route. The major policy drift comes at a time when the government is planning to announce a new Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy which will lay down the way ahead for strengthening defence production within the country and help in their export to friendly foreign countries.

The major push for the 'Make in India' initiative is going to ensure that projects worth several thousand crores would be given to the Indian manufacturers. The decision would mean that a large number of projects of the Indian Navy, Air Force and the Army would get impacted. Acquisitions including the ones which are in a fairly advanced stage like projects related to aircraft, combat platforms, guns and vessels are going to be affected by this new policy shift.

India is a military power in the South Asian region, whose overall military strength is indistinguishable, but subject to the overall level of its defence industry, which depends on the import of most weapons. According to the latest data of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India's arms imports declined by 33 per cent between 2011-15 and 2016-20, although it remains the world's second-largest importer after Saudi Arabia. France, Russia, the United States, South Korea and Israel were the largest suppliers of arms to India in 2020, according to the report. The report comes when India is striving to reduce defence imports and focus on domestic manufacturing. According to SIPRI, India's push to make it self-reliant in defence manufacturing has helped in lower imports. The government is taking measures to step up manufacturing and invite foreign manufacturers to 'Make in India' by cutting its import dependence and increasing self-sustenance for weapons. At the same time, based on considerations such as a national security strategy and international stature, India has also adopted external arms purchases as an important means of enhancing its military strength and influence albeit at the mercy of major Powers.

In recent years, Indian purchases of advanced weapons equipment from abroad have required not only direct procurement from foreign manufacturers but also the transfer of relevant technology by exporting countries, even allowing some of it to be produced independently within India. India is eager to achieve the goals of technology transfer and domestic production through the import of arms and has paid attention to the development of its military industry to prevent possible uncertainties in dependence on imports.

Indeed, as early as August 2020, to strengthen the country's defence industry, the Ministry of Defence issued a "weapons import ban list", which included 101 types of weapons equipment such as radar, artillery, destroyers, transport aircraft, light helicopters, wheeled armoured combat vehicles, conventional submarines and communications satellites. Following it up with the 'negative list' - in May 2021, India announced a second arms ban list, according to which from December 2021 to December 2025, there will be a gradual ban on the import of 108 items of equipment to facilitate India's domestic defence production and exports.

This time, the government announced a reconsideration of the global arms purchase project, which is, in fact, part of the above-mentioned series of weapons-import bans, as well as an initiative to promote Indian industry. It is worth mentioning that this time the MoD needs to reconsider "import transactions under the category of global purchases", which refers to military equipment purchased directly from foreign manufacturers and does not include foreign transfers of technology and production lines manufactured in India.

By reviewing the foreign deals, the government sends out the signal that it is very much possible to cancel a global contract to neutralize the strategy of international arms dealers to control technology thereby putting pressure on them to provide transfer of technology (ToT) and equipment by establishing production lines in India or by co-producing the weapons needed by Indian Armed Forces. This move may help Indian indigenous manufacturers to produce weapons locally.

At present, the weapons purchased by India from Russia include fighter jets Su-30MK, MiG-29K, T-90S tanks and S-400 air defence systems, covering all aspects of the land, sea and air, as well as long-standing and stable military sales cooperation with Russia through technology transfer and joint research and development. However, as the international situation continued to evolve, India's diplomatic strategy was changing and, to overcome the disadvantages of excessive reliance on Russian weapons and equipment, India had begun to seek to diversify sources of arms procurement and to increase arms purchases from Western countries, such as the United States.

In recent years, India has purchased United States Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift multi-mission helicopters, P-8I anti-submarine patrol aircraft and C-17 transport aircraft. It recently concluded nearly $3 billion in arms contracts with the United States, including $800 million for six Apache attack helicopters and over $2.1 billion for 24 MH-60R Multi-Role Helicopters (MHR) manufactured by Lockheed Martin, making the United States second only to Russia as an arms exporter.

In addition, India is studying its intentions to purchase more American-style weapons, including $2.5 billion worth of "marine guards" drones and $2.4 billion worth of six P8-I patrol aircraft. These deals, perhaps, may be impacted with new thinking at the Defence Ministry. In addition to the United States and Russia, India has actively sought to procure weapons from other countries, such as France and Israel, and agreements have been reached, including 36 Rafale aircraft purchased from France at a cost of $8.8 billion, as well as more than 8,000 "long nail" anti-tank missiles and more than 300 launchers procured from Israel.

Guided by the doctrine of "do not put eggs in a basket", India has not only increased its military strength but also achieved effective national security by expanding the range of sources of weapons. It also highlighted the geopolitical advantages that will help increase its international influence and achieve the dream of great power.

(The author is a journalist who writes on defence, strategic affairs, security and conflict)