Russian weapons MADE IN INDIA
The Indian Ministry of Defense has published an official report on the supply of foreign military equipment to the country. It turned out, as the TASS correspondent reports from Delhi, that the first line among India’s partners in military-technical cooperation (MTC) is confidently occupied by Russia. From 2012 / 13 to 2014 / 15 fiscal year, which begins in India 1 April and ends after twelve months 31 March, Moscow sent its military equipment to the Indians for 340 billion rupees (more than 5 billion dollars). In second place in this indicator are the United States. During this time they managed to earn XB NUMX billion rupees in the Indian market, or 300 billion dollars.
In fact, the same situation exists with prisoners weapons by contracts. Of the 67 arms purchase agreements with foreign countries, 18 belong to the Russian Federation, 13 to the United States of America and six to France. The assertions of self-confident Western analysts that “Russia is losing the Indian market”, “Delhi’s cooperation with Moscow is being taken to the background”, “Russian weapons have become unnecessary in the Indian army” and other similar statements made in the headlines of the American and European media and supported by the so-called analytical The reports of US research centers, such as Stratfor, were, as one would expect, another fake. A means of unfair competition or, if this phenomenon is made more acute, a continuation of the information war against our country.
SURPRISES WITHOUT SURPRISES
True, there was no surprise in the official announcement of the Indian Ministry of Defense about the leadership of Russian manufacturers of weapons and military equipment in the local arms market for domestic specialists and there is no. More than 70% tanks, self-propelled artillery installations, multiple launch rocket systems, fighters, bombers, attack aircraft, long-range radar detection and control aircraft, helicopters, aircraft carriers, frigates, nuclear and diesel submarines, missile ships, coastal defense systems, which are armed with the Indian Ground Forces, Air Force and Navy - Russian and Soviet production. And to this day, 40% of military equipment in the Indian army is made in Russia or assembled under a Russian license at local factories. IN aviation this share is 80%, on navy - 75%. Therefore, to say that Russia is losing the Indian market, a manifestation of incompetence or deliberate lies. But it is also ridiculous to claim the Russian monopoly in military-technical cooperation between India and foreign countries. She has never been, no, and she is useless. Neither Delhi nor Moscow.
And when Russia in the Western media reproaches with malice that it lost the Indian tender for the supply of Delhi attack helicopters, they never remember that before this India bought from Russia one hundred and fifty transport turntables Mi-17В-5, is going to produce Russian 200 at its plants Ka-226T light helicopters are interested in our C-400, Thor-M2KM anti-aircraft missile systems, the Shell-C1 missile and cannon and other iron-firing guns protecting the country. Apparently, for some reason, bringing such information to the Western public is unprofitable.
Another thing is that the Indian leadership has set a fundamental and ambitious task for its army and defense industry complex. One of its principles is to diversify the purchase of military equipment or, in other words, not to put all the eggs in one basket, to eliminate dependence on one country, even such a friendly, open and responsible, like India’s long-term partner Russia. The second principle, on which India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi insists and actively propagates: not to buy military equipment abroad, but to produce it at local enterprises. Equip your own army with the most advanced weapons systems and combat support, as well as purchase licenses and technologies for their production, manufacture it at Indian factories, strengthening and improving the local defense industry complex and creating the groundwork for entering the international arms market, for receiving export orders for third countries. According to the principle of "Made in India" (Made in India).
WANT IS NOT HARMFUL
There are certain difficulties with the implementation of both principles. Although with Delhi first things are more or less normal. Several arms contracts with the United States and France, which we have already mentioned, as well as with Germany, Israel, and even Brazil speak for themselves. Like the tenders our competitors won. But their implementation does not always meet the requirements that the Indians laid down for the competition. And the example of the French multifunctional fighter "Rafale" is especially bright here.
Recall that the 2012 tender for the supply of 126 fighters to India with a total value of 10 billion dollars, in which five aviation projects participated, including the American F-16 and F-18, as well as the Russian MiG-35, were won by the French. According to its terms, the winner had to deliver part of the aircraft to the Indian Air Force from its plants, and produce the rest, much larger part, in Indian enterprises, transferring not only the license, but also their technologies. But Dassault Aviation, the creator of Rafal, categorically refused to transfer the license and technology to the Indians. Moreover, it raised the price of its fighters three times. And until now, despite many years of negotiations between Delhi and Paris, the visit of the Prime Minister of India and the President of France to that capital and another, the consent of the Indians to buy not 126 fighters, but only 36, despite the contracts signed on this occasion, the delivery of aircraft to India never started. The parties do not agree on the price of this car.
The dispute goes around one billion dollars. The French go to get 9 billion, the Indians insist on 8. Interestingly, the 40 Su-30MKI multi-purpose fighters, which India buys from Russia in addition to those 210 similar machines that are already in service with the country's Air Force and are assembled from Russian vehicle sets in the Indian corporation HAL, will cost 3 billion dollars. And this is not the dumping of Moscow, but the price of a long-term and productive partnership that has been going on between the two countries for almost 60 years.
Russia is the only state in the world that, in the system of military-technical cooperation with India, adopted the principle “Made in India” declared by Prime Minister Modi as a guide to action.
Take the same multifunctional fighter Su-30MKI. It was created in Russia specifically for India. And the letter "And" in its name specifically indicates this. Moreover, the production of this aircraft, which carries on board the French, Israeli and Indian avionics, is deployed at Indian enterprises under a Russian license and on our technologies. For the time being, Indian specialists cannot fully master it, and some of the components of the aircraft are supplied to them from Russia, but every year this share is decreasing, making India one of the world's leading aviation powers.
About the same story and with the tank T-90C. This machine was developed at Uralvagonzavod, and is supplied to the Russian army. But India is the first customer. Moreover, she not only buys the tank "Vladimir", as he is called in the troops, but also produces it at her enterprises. Again, under a Russian license and when supplying a certain part of vehicle sets from Russian factories. In the Indian army is already about 350 tanks T-90C. There is information that Delhi wants to bring their number to one and a half thousand. And this is despite the fact that 10 has been making its own tank "Arjun" for years, which it is very proud of. But one thing, a tank for pride and parade, and another - for the fighting. And with “Vladimir” there are few who can compare. Recently, Islamic State militants distributed a video on you tube, which demonstrated how they shoot in T-90С in Syria from the US anti-tank BGM-71 TOW missile system. It would be better if they did not do it: the rocket hit the tank tower, but did not cause him any harm. Thanks to terrorists for advertising Russian weapons. But the author is a little distracted from the main topic.
NOT ONLY SCREWDRIVING
The principle of "Made in India" is particularly pronounced in the Russian-Indian supersonic rocket "BrahMos". It was created on the basis of the domestic anti-ship missile P-800 "Onyx" or its export version "Yakhont" with the participation of Indian engineers, designers and is called the name of the two rivers - Brahmaputra and Moscow. Launch a rocket at the enterprises of the Indian Organization for Defense Research and Development (DRDO). Some components are made by the military industrial complex NPO Mashinostroyenia, from Reutov near Moscow, the rest by DRDO.
The Indians put this rocket on their Talvar-type frigates, by the way, built in Russia, at the Severnaya Verf plant in St. Petersburg and Yantar in Kaliningrad, on modernized diesel submarines of the Varshavyanka family; coastal defense, suspended on pylons of air carriers - Tu-142 and IL-38SD (all Russian-made). Now a new, lightweight and shortened version of the rocket for the Su-30MKI fighter is being tested. Delhi is very proud of this product and is going to export it to third countries. On its basis, he plans to make a hypersonic rocket, in which he is also helped by Russian specialists. And you can talk about such joint projects for a very long time.
It is impossible not to recall the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, modernized for India from the Russian aircraft carrier cruiser Admiral Gorshkov, on which Russian MiG-29K \ KUB fighters are stationed. About the Vikrant aircraft carrier built on Indian shipyards and launched last year, the project of which was developed at the Nevsky Design Bureau of St. Petersburg, and about a tender for the construction of a new aircraft carrier that was announced in Delhi. Participation in the competition for its construction is taken, except for our country, the United States and France, but experts boast that the Indians will choose us. Our ship has one, but the most significant advantage - we are ready to provide India with not only the aircraft carrier itself, but also the technology of its construction.
And this, according to domestic experts, is one of the key points in the construction of the ship. They recall that the United States has never handed over to anyone their own developments. The Defense News weekly known in military circles reported that Delhi and Washington had recently discussed the possibility of cooperation in the field of aircraft carrier technology, but sources in the Indian Ministry of Defense said that no agreement had been reached. Similar difficulties exist with the French, who, as we know, are not going to share with the Indian specialists even the production technology of Rafale fighter jets, although they are obliged to do so under the terms of the tender they won. And Russia is not only ready to build an aircraft carrier itself and transfer the necessary technologies to the Indian side, but also to create a fifth-generation ship version of the fighter, on which Moscow and Delhi are working together today. In addition, they already have a MiG-29K ship-based fighter, which is ready for use not only on the Vikramadity, but also on any other ship of this class.
Carriers are not the only warships Russia has shared with India. Our country is the only one in the world that has leased a multi-purpose nuclear submarine K-152 “Nerpa” (971 project) to the other state, namely Delhi, the Indians call it “Chakra” (Chakra). Armed with torpedoes, it is considered one of the most quiet among similar submarines. The sailors of the fraternal country use it not only to master their combat skills, but also to study the possibilities of building such a ship in their shipyards. And by the way, they are going to lease another similar submarine, which is currently being built at the Amur Shipbuilding Plant.
CONFIDENCE DOESN'T MAKE MONEY
Such unprecedented cooperation in the military-technical sphere of Russia and India is explained by many reasons. One of them is that over the past sixty years and more we have never had any serious contradictions with Delhi. Regardless of who headed its government - the Conservatives, Democrats or representatives of the National Congress Party. We have always had open mutually respectful, sincere relations of friendship and trust towards each other. As they say, both in joy and in trouble, we were always together. So, I am sure it will continue. And when today, overseas or in Europe, there are jealous and, frankly, envious voices, claiming that cooperation in the military, military-technical field and friendship between Moscow and Delhi retreats to the second, and even to the third plan, such statements can be just laugh.
Yes, we can lose this or that tender. For a variety of reasons. And because the Indians want to get and master the weapons of another country, not only Russia. And therefore, in order not to create a monopoly and dependence on a single supplier. But the main thing is not a victory, but a trend, and it is on the side of the current and tomorrow's Russian-Indian cooperation. And to everyone who hopes that it is somewhere for some reason and for some reason breaks off, we will respond, as is customary in Odessa:
- Do not wait!
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