Should India try to lure Pakistan into an arms race?
Sure. That seems to be one way to force Pakistan to go on a spending spree, which will eventually bankrupt Pakistan.
This conclusion is true, only, if we assume nobody else will help Pakistan.
Pakistan is very important internationally. The US needs Pakistan for its own strategic interests. The Saudis need Pakistan for their own. It might turn out that no matter how much India spends on defence, Pakistan gets whatever funds it needs from USA and/or Saudi. In such a case, it is India that will get caught in its own trap. On the other hand, the only serious counter to the economic might of PRC is India. Getting India into a spending spree without itself actually having to do anything is easily achievable if PRC continues to supply Pakistan with advanced weapons.
Ultimately, a pure arms race is not a viable solution to make Pakistan collapse. India needs to encourage separatism within Pakistan and weaken it internally, so much so that even a generous inflow of money will not save it.
Sorry to say but you are not 100% correct.
1) India is already luring Pakistan into an arms race and India is winning by a massive margin.
2) While you are right that Saudi, US, China and all their other daddies are giving them either toys or monies or both, you have to realize that this is not the cold war anymore. Apart from the gulf states, every body else is trimming down their defence budget, that will soon enough will be reality for China too.
3) Recent brouhaha over Yemen resulted in Gulf calling out Pakis for what they are double faced POS and they made no secret of this "displeasure". Things won't be as smooth in the future as they have been in the past.
4) Despite all the money they are receiving, it results in a very "hand to mouth" budget. They maintain or at least try to maintain the ratio of 1:1.5 in most fields with some exceptions like naval surface vessels and infantry etc. At the same time, they have a fraction of India's budget when India don't have sufficient budget itself.
5) Modern weapon systems cost an arm and a leg something you can't have with your "hand to mouth" budget. What you needed was a F-16 blk 60 or a Gripen E what you got is used F-16 blk 15. I hope you get what I meant by that. An F-4 built today would have cost less than a third of F-16 blk 52 and only a fraction of F-35.
6) Whatever weapon systems Pak manages to "buy" from US or China today is very substandard. Be it the JF-17, Al Khalid, F-22p (their future mainstay FYI), and plenty of other stuff. While may look good on paper or good enough to fill numbers, their effectiveness in a battle is very questionable. So while Pak gets to say that they have a frigate in F-22p they don't and India knows it.
7) And last but definitely not the least, "Hasina Atom Bum". It shows you are fucked when maintaining your nuclear arsenal cost you $2.5 billion every year and your forex reserves need shoring up to get a loan from IMF.
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So I wholeheartedly disagree that arms race with Pak is not a good idea. Instead with the current threatening posture of India, Pak army gets a bigger budget with the tacit approval of the politicians and the awam. Weapon systems are getting expensive at a crazy rate and Pak can't afford them despite all the hand outs.
