India is taking tough steps to focus on the defense export of the nation to increase its involvement in the international weapon race. On one hand, India has gone up in importing the arms from foreign nations as compared to its other rival nations, while on other hand it is approaching the level of exporting arms. India’s neighbor and top rival, China has turned itself from importing to the indigenous production to make the nation more self-reliant in weapon manufacturing and technically more developed. India is one of the top weapons exporters and is on the way to induct more weapons in future. According to the stats, China and Pakistan were 4th and 7th arms importers with 4.5% and 3.2% of their arms being imported.
The exporter regime of India is taking a giant leap. Bharat Dynamic Limited has been reported to be coming out as a defense weapons exporter. The plan was taken out to export Akaash Surface To Air Missile and Anti-Tank Guided Missiles. Several nations like Vietnam, Turkey, Egypt, Kazakhstan and other nations have been seen curious in getting weapons from India. India has put 15 weapons in the export list, which include Arjun mark 2, Astra BVRAAM missile, Sonar, Light Combat Aircraft, AEWCS, Prahaar missile, expandable high-speed aerial target Abhayas, Brahmos Supersonic missile and others in the list. As per the reports, India is eyeing to raise its weapon export by 6 times to $ 2 billion by 2019. The Indian government has given the instructions to PSUs to cap 10% of their production for export in order to bring the export level up.
India is currently importing a significant part of its weapons from some of the top arms exporters. Russia is the top exporter of arms to India, followed by the US, Israel, UK and other nations. The reason why India is importing weapons are
- India is unable to produce competitive weapons to counter the developed neighbors like China.
- Delays in weapon production, leading to extended weapon commissioning.
- Lack of technology.
- Requirement of more and advanced arms in less time.
India has been in the game of exports from a long time, but on the lower levels. India has exported its homemade assault rifle INSAS to Oman and Nepal. HAL Dhruv was exported to Ecuador, Israel and Nepal in military and commercial variant. Mauritius has imported MCGS Barracuda from India for its coast guards. Apart from these, India has exported Cheetah helicopter to Afghanistan, bullet proof jackets to Nepal, Sukhoi 30 avionics and MIG spare parts to Malaysia and Jaguar avionics and spares to Oman. India has made a strong market of it in the arms export and now heading to a more stable and bold status in the arms exports. US, Russia and China accounts for 62% of the total arms exports going on, which is far ahead then India’s level. Some allegations of Egypt and some other nations showing their interest in Tejas Mk 1 are being reported. But it all depends on the Indian government to release the deal or not. The membership of the MTCR will also affect the arms exports of India. The future of arms exchange will go high in the immediate future with private player going into the game.
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