By Logan Williams, Warrior Editorial Fellow
Reuters reported, in a recent profile, that India is slowly and carefully extricating itself from Russia’s grasp.
In the past two decades, Russia has been the sole source for approximately two-thirds of India’s foreign weapons purchases. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pursuing the continuation of this defense-industrial relationship.
However, the Modi Government has reportedly rejected such entreaties by his once-partner, Vladimir Putin, in favor of avoiding damaging India’s improving relationship with the United States.
Rather, Modi seems intent upon increasing cooperation with American defense companies, and upon plans to increase domestic production of Western-designed defense materiel, through agreements with the United States’ multinational defense corporations.
An excellent example of the U.S.–Indian defense cooperation comes from the Lockheed Martin F-21 concept. The F-21 is a new fighter jet designed by Lockheed Martin in concert with the Indian Air Force, specifically tailored to meet the unique challenges that India expects to face in the coming years, and intended to be built by Indian laborers in India’s manufacturing plants. While this airframe very much resembles an upgraded and upgunned F-16, its importance isn’t just due to its role as an offensive aircraft, rather, its importance emerges form its obvious geopolitical symbolism.
Part of the motivation for India’s defense realignment certainly comes from the toll that Russia’s monstrous invasion of Ukraine has taken upon its defense manufacturing capacity. India sincerely doubts that Russia can provide spare parts to repair Indian-owned equipment, let alone produce new weapons for India’s planned $100-billion of weapons-purchasing expenditures in the next decade.
Perhaps, even more importantly, India has witnessed the atrocious performance of Russia’s equipment during the brutal war against the existence of a free Ukrainian people.
For example, Newsweek has reported that at least 20-percent of Russia’s verified manned-aircraft losses were due to Russia’s own failures! A few of these losses were due to friendly-fire incidents, however, the vast majority were due to errors made by poorly-trained pilots, or more often, mechanical failures due to poor maintenance and manufacturing procedures. While Newsweek’s reportage focused upon the deficiencies in Russia’s Air Force, it seems that those failings are likely prevalent within other military branches and equipment areas.
India has good cause to question whether Russia’s equipment can really function as advertised, or more appropriately, whether that equipment is truly capable of performing its mission in a conflagration within the Indo-Pacific.
Weaponry is not the only sector in which India is seeking to establish closer ties to the United States. Due to President Joe Biden’s steady, inspiring leadership, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) was recently established, connecting key global economies into one massive, multi-modal, trade and infrastructure network. It has been widely heralded as the West’s answer to the PRC’s neocolonial, subjugatory, and peonizing “One Belt, One Road” initiative. Without a doubt, India is the core of this corridor, without whom, the entire enterprise – and all of the geopolitical advantages which it offers – would collapse in an instant.
However, Modi’s Government has expressed a desire to conduct this de-coupling from Russia slowly, for fear of forcing Russia closer to Beijing. This is likely a fallacy, because Russia has already become virtually inseparable from the People’s Republic of China — Moscow’s and Beijing’s interests have increasingly become intertwined.
Regardless of the speed at which India’s re-alignment is occurring, it is becoming more apparent by the day that India is more oriented toward the West than ever before. This evolution may not be occurring as rapidly as the United States would like, but this progress is, itself, cause for great celebration.
Logan Williams currently studies at the University of Connecticut. He is an International Affairs Researcher; Work Published in Newspapers, Magazines, and Journals, Such As: Geopolitics Magazine, Modern Diplomacy, Tufts University’s The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Democracy Paradox, Diario Las Américas, International Affairs Forum, Fair Observer, History Is Now Magazine, UNC at Chapel Hill’s American Diplomacy, The Center for Military Modernization’s Warrior Maven Magazine,
