A look into India’s defence arms procurement & the big numbers
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) approved the purchase of missiles, weapon systems and other military hardware worth ₹38,900 crore last week. These procurement decisions were taken at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by defence minister Rajnath Singh.
Why? The government referred the procurement decision to the “current situation and the need to strengthen the armed forces for the defence of our borders”.
Note: The DAC is India’s highest decision-making body on defence procurement.
What is in the list?
21 MIG-29 along with upgradation of existing 59 MIG-29 aircraft and procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI aircraft. While the MIG 29 procurement and upgradation will be done from Russia, the Su-30 MKI will be procured from Indian state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The big numbers
India is said to be the second-largest arms importer in the world, followed by Saudi Arabia. Around 60% of its defence requirements are imported with Russia, Israel, France and the United States being the biggest suppliers.
A data by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on international arms transfers revealed that India accounted for 9.2% of the total global arms imports during 2015–2019 while Saudi Arabia registered 12%. China stood at fifth position with 5.2%.
Despite being a big importer of defence equipment, the country has also made some progress with respect to the exports. Data by defence ministry’s annual reports showed that India’s defence exports more than doubled in fiscal 2019–20 to ₹10,745 crore from ₹4,682 crore in 2017–18. India’s big export destinations for defence products are Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Mauritius.
The rise in defence exports has been led by private participation in the industry and Modi government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative on defence production and procurement procedure.
Adding to that, there have also been reports of HAL looking to set up logistics bases in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka as part of initiatives to boost exports and encourage the countries to buy India’s light combat aircraft Tejas and military helicopters.
Talking about the defence expenses, India is among the five largest military spenders in 2019 along with U.S., China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, data by SIPRI stated. The report says that China and India were the second and third largest military spenders in the world in 2019.
China’s military expenditure reached $261 billion in 2019 while India’s expenditure grew by 6.8% compared with 2018 to $71.1 billion. ‘India’s tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending,’ said Siemon T. Wezeman, SIPRI Senior Researcher in the report.
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