Indian Arms Export To Friendly Countries
Though India is still one of the biggest importers of Arms, value wise, slowly but surely now it is on way to become an Exporter of Arms also.
India may not have a robust defence production sector, but has now commenced production of world class weapons systems like the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles,the Akash surface-to-air missile systems, Tejas light combat aircraft, Dhruv advanced light helicopters and ships like OPVs, Corvettes and LCUs.
Many countries have started to give a second look at these systems, realizing that they match the world’s best in both technology and quality.The added attraction is their low cost in comparison to Western products.
Our neighbour China even with low quality weapons has emerged as the world’s fifth largest arms exporter through reverse engineering of advanced military technology of other countries. Though China’s arms clients are only a few countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Algeria only.
However India has not done any reverse engineering instead has achieved success in certain fields through own research. Now it has set up a system to speed up sale of military equipment to friendly countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Myanmar and others through defence lines of credit (LoC), akin to military sales system of the US. The new procedure will substantially enhance the speed of the defence purchase credits extended to friendly countries.
This will not only help India boost its arms exports, which are almost negligible as of now, but also prevent third parties like China from undercutting India.
Once started this procedure will also apply to any export of military hardware produced even by the Indian Private Sector. The overall aim of the new procedure is to shorten the negotiations and price finalization process.
