Yes, if they earn a bit then they can invest it further on R&D. But then you need to follow the self embargo else I am laughing on this government for a self embargo and then finding waivers for things which you still want to import even after embargo, if you want such waivers then what is the point of an embargo imposed on yourself?
If Armed Forces think that because in USA private firms make a lot of defence equipment and ours have started doing it then we are at the same level then I can feel pity on them, if army wants an AR-15 pattern carbine, ask SSSD to develop an AR-15 carbine instead of issuing tenders for specs, specs alone don’t matter, design too matters but in other parts of the world countries lobby to make their private companies win the tender if their provided equipment qualifies al parameters else they can import, here in India we lobby to import and stay away from Indian companies.
We would have been using thousands of Arjuns but Army changed their requirements unnecessarily over time so that Arjun becomes unacceptable and T-90s are imported, same goes with their infantry rifle program, they changed their caliber requirements multiple times during development, we can make but we need people who are ready for it and hate imports. Here Indian Army purposely wants a foreign rifle to win their firearms tender while they can ask SSSD straightaway that we need AKs and ARs not CZ BREN knockoff P-72s so make it for us so that you can easily win the tender but then Army will not do it, Army can help in development of Small Arms but they don’t do it purposely so that few elites can earn kickbacks from imports and then this so called arms embargo, what happened now? They said they will get an indigenous carbine but they are inviting foreign bids too? This is just joke, even I can say I will study 12 hours a day without touching phone and then spend hours on it saying, aaj man nahi padhne ka, aaj zaruri kaam hai, ek kaam tha...
Navy is in best condition because they focussed on indigenisation and hence we are producing aircraft carriers like INS Vikrant indigenously and next INS Vishal carrier will also be built indigenously, Navy only has to float tenders to those who will construct their submarine and all of them are Indian companies.
Airforce is now focussing on indigenisation hence now they are getting well off for future but Indian army so called pride of India has always lobbied for imported maal, funny thing is that Indian helicopter service companies like Pawan Hans (which is a government PSU company) uses Airbus helicopters and not Indigenous Dhruv helos, if Civilian variant of Dhruv was made for fun then why did Government waste our taxpayers’ money on it’s development?
Indian Army uses almost half a dozen different types of red dots and holographic sights, we import EOTech 512 even though BEL Makes holographic sights indigenously, Army could have made it standard, but made a clusterfuck with infuse of multiple imported ones,
The only reason QAT got Quad NODs was because Tonbo was making it in India indigenously, if they were not making it, the MoD would not have sanctioned it’s development for use, such is our condition.
World’s best firearm makers belong to the countries where firearms are illegal to own except for a few legal civilian weapons for self defence.
If Army wanted an AR-18 battle rifle they could have asked SSSD to make an AR-18 rifle but then they want ki SSSD ko ham kyu bole? Wo nahi banaye unki galti, ham import karenge.
It is not America where if a company’s product does not qualify then it can be rejected, it is India hence if one is developing UAV then support it so that it can be procured instead of rejecting them and leaving them with few resources.
We have JV called PLR which hardly receives any bulk orders, they make small arms and all sorts of accessories indigenously yet are ignored.
to get rid of few poles when its ready to fire.
