India is ramping up domestic production of complex military equipment, the country’s defense minister said on Thursday.
The South Asian nation is heavily dependent on Russia for more than half of its armaments.
With the world’s second-largest army, fourth-largest air force and seventh-largest navy, India has for decades been largely dependent on arms imports, especially from Russia, which in the 1990s contributed 80 percent of its defense equipment.
The one-source dependence dropped significantly with the entry of US and European producers into the Indian market in the 2000s, but Moscow still remains a key player in the field, supplying an estimated 55 percent of India’s military hardware.
“Our main goal is to promote self-reliance and export in defense,” Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said as he released a list of military equipment that will be produced domestically.