Sweden-based think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in March released its assessment for a five-year period (2018-2022). It sold the cutting-edge Rafale jets in 2019 and in 1980s, provided the Mirage 2000 jets, the latest at the time. Similarly, France joined hands with India to make the Scorpene class submarines in India. Moscow handheld India in the nuclear submarine programme it converted a warship into an aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, and supplied the S400 air-defence missile system. India and Russia co-produced the BrahMos missile. In the past 60 years, India has licensed-produced military equipment of Russian/Soviet Union parentage, including T-90 tanks, Sukhoi 30 MKI and MiG-21 jets. For now, it’s just about getting partners for the elusive military technology as threats from China rise. From New Delhi’s point of view, it would be imprudent to term the shift pro-American, or ‘moving away’ from Russia, its longstanding ally.
The bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Washington DC on June 22 had unprecedented announcements on technology sharing.
The other technologies are dual-use, which aid critical applications of modern-day militaries during peace and conflict. Aero-engines and armed drones are military-use equipment. After the United States offered India cutting-edge, elusive and restricted technologies on making aero-engines for fighter jets, armed drones, semiconductors, space-based radars, quantum computing and 6G communications, New Delhi has made a strategic shift - away from being Russia-centric or France-centric - to access such technologies.
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