Public sentiment regarding India's defense procurement is mixed, featuring optimism for local production advancements juxtaposed with significant concerns over corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and the government's perceived prioritization of elite interests over the middle class. While many appreciate the analysis and insights regarding the challenges faced, there is a strong desire for reforms and system improvements. Key issues highlighted include skepticism towards Western military technology, particularly following incidents involving advanced jets, and a critical view of domestic policy impacts on citizens.

Indian Government

Indian Defence Acquisition Council

Private Defense Manufacturers

The 1.2 million army size is ridiculous, and probably a huge drain on resources in terms of equipment needed to give it the means to fight, the salaries, and also the pensions.

India probably needs to trim it down to 300K, train and equip them better, and throw the rest on a better air force and navy.

A1700AW

Indian military is making great progress!

[For example new generation of soldiers is now going to be mostly parasite-free](https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/rural-water-and-sanitation/is-india-really-open-defecation-free-here-s-what-numbers-say-77918).

But for reals, it's not possible to be an extremely poor country and have a decent military. India's been slowly becoming a middle income country, and at this point it can have money, it can have industry, and it can have literate and healthy soldiers capable of using modern equipment. Without development, there's no hope anyway.

Also relevant - [did you know India already has higher male life expectancy than Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy)? (68 vs 66)

&gt; I can't believe Indians really think they can use Indian Rupee to pay international arm dealer. FFS, even Russians who are under the worst sanctions ever, are not even taking Rupees as payment, why the fuck would LM or Boeing take it?



🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣



That is fucking gold.



When it comes to India's military procurement and their overall competency of their force structure I honestly can see China beating the shit out of them quickly.

bacggg

yixinli88

I think that the biggest benefit for China to keep the Himalayan conflict alive except for good old nationalism is to financially ruin India like Soviet.

China can afford to have troops running up and down on their side without much financial burden. India must spend much more too keep up and drains their funds. Politically the conflict puts pressure on bigger military spending in India which will do more damage than the actual conflict with a hundred deaths and a few sq km of frozen rock changing hands.

Puzzled-Bite-8467

*the US spent arond 10% its Federal spending？*

&amp;#x200B;

I think it should be about 17%.

adminPASSW0RD

FYI Indian now has no minesweepers because of a botched procurement plan. All China has to do to defeat the Indian navy is literally dump few thousand mines FFS. Who the frick cares about a fancy pants aircraft carriers if you can't clear mines in your back yard.

Soon they will have 6 diesel submarines because project 75i is delayed and they will have to retire the old subs in this decade.

Procurement pay in rupees is crazy. Imagine you walk into a car dealership and offer to pay in coupons that you can only use in Walmart for example.

Sakurasou7

Wtf is with the horrifically bad spelling in this shitpost.

[deleted]

This isn't the subreddit for shitposts. r/NonCredibleDefense is the place to go for that.

Speedster202

are you the chinese guy obsessed with India ?

otaku2297

&gt;Indian goverment is trying to save every dollar they can

yes we do, but doesn't, or rather shouldn't, this be the goal of all govts?

&gt;In 2022 alone, they will have to pay $256 billion foreign debt. 

While this is true, the sentence seems to point out that this is normal, from your own link the total debt is a bit less than USD 600 bn, and 43% of which is due this year. Multiple long term loans are to be repaid in these two years and this is not the norm.

&gt; And India has trade defdilt with all most every single country you can think of. 

While I get the point, hyperbole helps not unless you have not heard of USA, France, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc.

&gt; devaluation of rupee aginst USD. 

Or it will boost exports and help reduce BOP gap

&gt;. India's wholesale price inflation runs at 30-year high, I

While true, it does not mean much if the country we are trading with also have inflation. In [CPI we rank 108](https://theprint.in/economy/you-thought-inflations-high-in-india-data-shows-at-least-100-countries-doing-worse/1020191/) (top rank for highest inflation), noone have done one for wholesale prices and I am lazy but a rough look at [this table](https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/producer-prices-change) puts Indian at more or less middle position. 

&gt;That's why they keep cutting the price offer for the 114 jets, it was $30 billion in 2014 now it is $18 billion (source)

Source for 30 Billion deal? I can only find the [Russia India JV of 364 Jets for that figur](https://thediplomat.com/2017/05/india-russia-5th-generation-fighter-jet-deal-to-be-signed-soon/)e, this [article from August 2018](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/20-billion-defence-project-india-kicks-off-process-to-procure-110-fighter-jets-for-iaf/articleshow/63646424.cms) estimates the prices of USD 20 billion for 110 jets. And the cost asked in RFI have been known to go up even multiple times (see INS Vikramaditya)

Sri_Man_420

Indian military spending is something of a disaster for sure, with many horror stories (Russian carrier comes to mind), failed domestic attempts (not sure Tejas is still relevant, certainly not efficient). Probably a mix of corruption and ego that got them there.

India should have kept spending low, focused on buying off the shelf, and pump the rest of the money into developing their economy for export, especially high end tech. Like China, they could then have naturally grown the ability to make their own designs, or just tailor/co-develop foreign offers with local production as they did with the Su-30 and the Brahmos.

Not to mention there is a whole niche of untapped military potential in the drone space that Turkey of all countries now leads. Even India has the know how to get into it, and they failed at even that. It shows a lack of vision (like most countries but still).

By my count China is about to become the world's sole superpower in mere months, so it's game over anyway.

sanem48

[Lol wumao. You posted the same dogshit a year ago.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LessCredibleDefence/comments/pi8mul/can_india_build_a_defence_industry_like_china_did/hbo9zjw/)

SATARIBBUNS50BUX

Why does the CCP hate India so much? I don't feel threatened by them, why should you?

AdBitter2071

&gt;Indian goverment is already spending too much money on defence, yes, too much. Indian denfence buget took 15.5 % of its goverment spending....

15.5% of Union Budget, [Federal Budgets are 1.5x that](https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/rbi-state-budget-explained-gdp-economy-6056708/). A better metric would be as a % of GDP in which India is j[ust above the world average at 2.7% (world average in 2.2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures)%, USA 3.5%, Russia 4.1%, Israel 5.2%, China 1.7%, Pakistan [2.8% which got cut down to 2.2%](https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/pakistan-army-says-defence-budget-for-2022-23-decreases-from-2-8-of-the-gdp-to-2-2/articleshow/92213022.cms) apparently for IMF talk, also many counties, Pak I know, don't include all expenses like Pensions in Defence Budget ) 

&gt; That's why they just pushed that half ass baked recirment scheme, 

I don't see the Problem with Agnipath, hiring [50%](https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-by-2032-agnipath-50-percent-agniveer-in-army-1-5-lakh-recruitments-every-year-vice-chief-of-army-staff-bs-raju-2961079) of NCOs on short term contracts and retaining a forth of them on performance basis on after 4 years. The Scheme have been a success in the sense that there have been a [record number of application](https://www.dailypioneer.com/2022/page1/record-7-5l-apply-for-iaf-agnipath.htm) this year. 

&gt;that's why they are not spending on R&amp;D.

They want to spend on R&amp;D, hence Agnipath to reduce



🔗 **Bypass paywalls**:

* [www.firstpost.com](https://archive.is/submit/?submitid=&amp;url=https://www.firstpost.com/india/not-a-single-project-completed-on-time-air-chief-marshal-flags-delay-in-defence-procurement-13892911.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CMany%20times%2C%20we%20know%20while,Marshal%20Amar%20Preet%20Singh%20said)

📣 **[Submission Statement by OP](/r/GeopoliticsIndia/comments/1kyjkjv/not_a_single_project_completed_on_time_air_chief/muxr9hy/)**:
&gt; SS: Summary: Air Chief Marshal Flags Delay in Defence Procurement
&gt;
&gt;Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has expressed serious concerns over consistent delays in India’s defence procurement processes. Speaking at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event, he highlighted that no major project has been completed on time, including the delayed delivery of Tejas Mk1A jets under a ₹48,000 crore contract with HAL.
&gt;
&gt;He criticized the lack of adherence to timelines, especially in indigenous programs like the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Tejas Mk2, and the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), noting prototypes for Mk2 and AMCA have yet to be rolled out.
&gt;
&gt;Singh emphasized that trust and transparency between the armed forces and industry are essential and urged for real "design and production" under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. He also noted private industry’s participation in AMCA as a positive step forward.
&gt;
&gt;Referencing Operation Sindoor, he stressed the changing nature of warfare and the urgency for India to modernize. Singh has previously warned of India’s lag behind China in military technology and criticized HAL for failing to deliver on commitments. 

**📜 Community Reminder**: Let’s keep our discussions civil, respectful, and on-topic. Abide by the subreddit rules. Rule-violating comments will be removed.



**📰 Media Bias fact Check Rating :**  First Post – Bias and Credibility 




|Metric|Rating|
|:-|:-|
|Bias Rating|right-center|
|Factual Rating| mostly|
|Credibility Rating|high credibility|

This rating was provided by Media Bias Fact Check. For more information, see First Post – Bias and Credibility's review 
[here](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/first-post/).
***

❓ Questions or concerns? [Contact our moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/GeopoliticsIndia).

GeoIndModBot

SS: Summary: Air Chief Marshal Flags Delay in Defence Procurement

Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has expressed serious concerns over consistent delays in India’s defence procurement processes. Speaking at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event, he highlighted that no major project has been completed on time, including the delayed delivery of Tejas Mk1A jets under a ₹48,000 crore contract with HAL.

He criticized the lack of adherence to timelines, especially in indigenous programs like the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Tejas Mk2, and the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), noting prototypes for Mk2 and AMCA have yet to be rolled out.

Singh emphasized that trust and transparency between the armed forces and industry are essential and urged for real "design and production" under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. He also noted private industry’s participation in AMCA as a positive step forward.

Referencing Operation Sindoor, he stressed the changing nature of warfare and the urgency for India to modernize. Singh has previously warned of India’s lag behind China in military technology and criticized HAL for failing to deliver on commitments.

BROWN-MUNDA_

Just to be clear, aren’t all domestic weapons programs in South Asia basically job programs under an oligarch friendly to whoever the ruling party is? 

Actual purpose and usage of the weaponry is not even a priority…

NarutoRunner

Whatever you do, do not search the shell used in the Arjun tank. 

Worst mistake of my life.

FatTater420

["India’s Defence Procurement Woes: A System Stuck in Bureaucratic Quicksand"](https://southasiatimes.org/indias-defence-procurement-woes-a-system-stuck-in-bureaucratic-quicksand/)

&gt; India’s defence procurement system, despite repeated promises of modernization, remains plagued by delays, bureaucratic red tape, and corruption. 

&gt; ...

&gt; With rising regional threats from China and Pakistan, India’s sluggish defence acquisitions threaten national security and operational readiness.

Which appears quite relevant given India's recent lack of performance with delays and cost overruns in multiple of India's domestic military projects, making them seem more like job programs, than procurement projects. Not to mention a serious deficiency in capability such as AEW&amp;C (as compared to his neighbors).

GripAficionado

Afaik, only 2 or 3 of these delayed projects were not outdated when they came out

SGTRoadkill1919

Meanwhile their space agency's one of the most well-managed in the world. They may not like the British, but they copied their bipolar nature.

MehEds

I mean, the PLAAF wasn't really a very capable air force like today back in the 1990s and 2000s. They sat it out, invested a lot in indigenous development and that helped them greatly.

Pretty much every defence project of ours as of now is on-time. We can see 15+ AWACS by the end of 2030, and other specialised EW crafts, proper indigenous light tanks and MBTs in the thousands, IFVs, APCs, SPH, basically every major equipment.

And even though I don't like war when our economy is growing at a rapid pace, I believe it's the best shot for our MIC to grow rapidly.

JustChakra

IDK, I think the Tejas is actually pretty cool...

Traditional-Film-327

The Indian Defence Acquisition Council's approval of military procurement proposals aims to boost domestic manufacturing and operational capabilities.

India Defence Procurement

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want