BrahMos sets the 'gold standard' for Russian-Indian defence projects | Russia & India Report
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BrahMos sets the 'gold standard' for Russian-Indian defence projects
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There has been a lot of talk recently about
growing competition on India's arms market,
which is crucial for Russia. In Soviet times, Russia
supplied some 75-80 per cent of the weapons for
India's Army, Air Force and Navy but now, as
India matures financially, it is opting increasingly
for more expensive western armaments. Back in
the 1980s, German and French supplies brought
India submarines and Mirage 2000 fighters and,
in 1990, Israel broke in, making India one of its
biggest sales markets, along with the US. Finally,
the last ten years have seen a significant boost to
Indian-US military and technical ties, with US's
sales of military transport and antisubmarine
aircraft nearing $10 billion.
In this situation, the best way for Russia to retain
its position in India is to revise the trade paradigm
of military and technical cooperation, shifting the
focus to joint projects based on risk-sharing
partnership, whereby the parties invest jointly in
creation, production and promotion of products.
Today, Russia and India have two joint defence
projects, including the BrahMos programme for
designing, producing and marketing supersonic
stealth cruise missiles, and a project for building
the MTA multirole medium transport aircraft.
During Russian President Medvedev's visit to
India in December 2010, a contract was also
signed to design India's version of the Fifth
Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), which
potentially means yet another joint undertaking.
While the МТРprogramme has not yet shown
any impressive progress, the BrahMos project
can be seen as the 'gold standard' for joint
military manufacturing programmes, effectively
combining such factors as commercial profit for
Russian and Indian partners, a tangible
improvement in the combat ability of the Indian
Army, Navy and Air Force, and development of
new technologies, which is particularly important
for India. Perhaps the project's most valuable
result is the accumulated experience of resolving
difficult legislative, organisational and financial
problems. In the future, this experience will be
used for new joint programmes, including for the
FGFA project.
What makes this programme so unique is that
India is, in fact, buying one of its first
standardised weapons systems that can be
deployed by all three armed services - the Army,
the Navy and the Air Force.
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