Posted on 01/29/2024 4:56:25 AM PST by marcusmaximus
India has signaled it will distance itself from Russian weapons, threatening further Russia's role as a major global arms supplier amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The development was reported by Reuters on Monday, citing four government sources, including a recently retired senior security official, who all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject. The sources said India is gradually pivoting away from Russia and shifting toward the West for its arms supplies.
Russia is the second-largest global arms exporter behind the United States. Over the last two decades, Russia supplied India with 65 percent of its weapons purchases of more than $60 billion
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
That’s a very positive development. Measured at purchasing power parity, India already has the world’s 3rd largest economy and have the world’s largest population. India is a rising great power. It is vital that we get India to align with the West + Japan. If they align with Russia and China it will be a disaster. Every step from the quad to arms sales, that gets them more firmly tied to the West is positive.
Russian weapons are crap, too.
India is producing more of its own weapons.
97 more Tejas fighter jets: Government clears massive defence deal
“Newsweek...spoke on condition of anonymity”
LOL. Same ‘sources’ that kept telling us that Trump ‘colluded’ with Russia to win the 2016 election, I guess.
“Russian weapons are crap, too.”
Do you guys still claim that the Russians shovels stopped Ukraine’s Greatest Offensive Operation ever in its tracks, or perhaps it was something else.
...just askin’
Russian weapons stronk as bull!
This has been a long, slow, 20 year long pivot for India.
“Russian weapons stronk as bull!”
Lots of Bradley’s and some Leopards might not fully agree with that.
Survival rate in Russian armor, is poor - in contrast to some western armor.
But, other than what you might call “loose bolt” failures of Russian missiles, the remainder of Russian military weapons seem to work OK.
Except, that there is a quality control problem with ships and planes . . . yet, that is more often than not, made up with:
Russians are accustomed to their quality control problems, but soldier on.
And, Russia learned from the Germans in WW-II, that an abundance of ammunition often wins a day - despite technical failures.
At root, India has a severe defense problem and it has nothing to do with purchasing new Russian weapons. The Ukranian destruction of all Russia has to make war with has shown the existing weapons India from Russia are inferior. Nothing Russian is any good.
And the Tejas uses the GE F404 turbofan engine, the same as on the F/A-18A.
The Tejas MkII uses the larger F414 from the F/A-18E.
>>It is vital that we get India to align with the West + Japan.
India seems intent on aligning with itself. It has taken a long time to shake off the effects of colonialism.
Then and now, hundreds of various Russian armor types have been destroyed having never fired a single shot. Russian artillery has been just worn out and thus inaccurate to the point that the current replacements are ancient T 55 tanks
By the end of March, there will be no Russian army in the field capable of offense or defensive operations
“By the end of March, there will be no Russian army in the field capable of offense or defensive operations”
Watching videos does not tell one who’s winning. And, by the way, Russia has just as many videos.
This article is short on specifics…from the weapon systems being purchased, to the actual bona fides of the anonymous sources being quoted.
Any significant strategic realignment will be indicated when India stops being a major purchaser of Russian oil ( reselling it to Europe for a profit)
Russian arms theory in a nutshell: make mediocre weapons, but make a sh*t-ton of them. IOW, quantity has a quality all it’s own. Same goes for it’s infantry troops. Poorly trained, indifferently equipped, but vastly superior numerically.
CC
“India already has the world’s 3rd largest economy “
Are they coming up in the world? A recent National Geographic article said that less than half of India’s population had access to a toilet.
All the Indians moved here to Frisco.
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