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India
to Export Sophisticated Armament Sans Moral Constraints
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Advanced
Light Helicopter made in
India
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By
Danish A Khan, Special to IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, October 30 (IslamOnline) - In its growing zeal to have military
independence, especially in defense production and exports, India has
decided to do away with its policy of blacklisting some nations from
defense exports.
Defense
Minister George Fernandes announced ambitious plans for selling
indigenously produced sophisticated defense armaments like warships,
helicopters, aircraft, small arms and specialized ammunitions to
foreign buyers with little moral constraints.
Fernandes
spelt out the government policy October 27, while speaking at the
concluding session of the 15th National Congress for Defense Studies
organized by the Central Hindu Military Education Society's Bhonsala
Military College at Nashik, an industrial town in India's western
state of Maharashtra.
The
defense industry in India had till now catered mostly for domestic
needs. But keeping in line with the new policy of the central
government, defense production and exports are all set to expand on a
global scale. India's total annual overseas weapons sales average a
meager 1000 million rupees (twenty-one million dollars).
"Exports
which are worth less than Rs. 1000 million will now be raised 10
fold," declared Fernandes.
"We
have started a drive to find export markets to achieve economies of
scale for our indigenous armament industry," the Defense Minister
said. A target of Rs. 10,000 million for export of armaments has been
set for the current year.
Fernandes
also explained that with Indian infrastructure for production,
research and development in defense having grown over the years, the
attention has now shifted to being partners in developing new products
rather than being merely recipients of technology. "Our vision is
to create in India a defense industrial base capable of producing
world class products, at highly competitive prices," he said.
At
present, India spends more than two billion dollars annually to import
weapons and military spares.
In
February 2002, an exhibition of defense products, Defexpo-2000, was
organized at New Delhi. The research and development wing of the
defense ministry, the Defense Research and Development Organization
(DRDO), put up an impressive show of indigenously built defense
products which attracted a number of buyers.
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Collage
of Indian indigenous arms |
Among
the chief attractions were the all-terrain ambulance, mobile
decontamination unit having the capability to decontaminate personnel
and weapons systems from any nuclear exposure, the new EX tank - an
upgraded version of India's main battle tank, Arjun, a bridge layer
tank (BLT), a multi-hop assault system - Sarvatra, and a bridging
system capable of spanning a width of 100 meters.
Besides,
several countries also showed keen interest in Indian-made electronic
warfare systems, new range of 5.56 mm small arms, special ammunition,
advanced light helicopter (ALH), aircraft and warships.
Indian
defense experts have already begun studies to find out ways to boost
the country's military arsenal with new technologies, to slash imports
and increase overseas sales of local munitions.
The
government's decisions to open defense production to the private
sector, allow collaborative research, and also open up the defense
sector to Foreign Direct Investment up to 26 percent, are enough to
indicate the government's desire to place itself as one of the
emerging industrial powers in the world especially in defense
technology.
A
ten-year plan for self-reliance in defense technology had already been
put in place since 1994. The plan is focused on high-technology
armaments and is likely to make the country independent of foreign
technology in critical areas by 2005.
Areas
targeted for greater native production include missile components,
early warning systems, radar, metals, robotics, fiber optics, lasers,
UAVs, and stealth technology.
India
currently spends about 70 percent of its armaments budget on imports,
and the goal is to reduce that to 30 percent by 2005.
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