French Defence Strategy & Rearmament
- Thread starter Tatvamasi
- Start date
I can't believe I watched this for one hour. Quite illuminating, there are so many overlaps with Indian defense thinking.
I hope one day we will have a similar military-industrial complex.
Yes, we have everything we need, but we are looking for a larger structure that would make it easier to sustain all this. Europe is a natural candidate, but in fact the objectives of the participants are too fragmented for it to be feasible. With India we have common objectives, but you are too wary of us, yet we are ready to cooperate sincerely and our contribution would greatly accelerate your development. But your view is still that it is too expensive and that we are trying to cheat you. You think that money alone is our goal, but for our military-industrial complex money is not a goal, it is a means to survive, because it takes money to keep everything we have at a good level.
I believe the government understands quality comes at a high price. If you look at Indian military acquisitions throughout the years, you will notice that we always try to have a quantitative edge over our rivals when a quantitative edge may be more suitable for our defense needs. Whether we have achieved that or not is debatable. Take for example recent purchases of P8Is and Romeos from the US.
I personally believe that France is the best partner we can have for building up our MIC. We already incorporate French design features into our own hardware. LCA Tejas is an good example of this. France's offers are generally too expensive because of high quality and higher R&D costs on your end. If some of this can be offloaded to India in this venture, we can find a situation that works for both our countries.
I'm hoping for a good result. Our civilian co-operation in railway infrastructure is on point with Alstom but with military hardware, governments are more involved and can put up roadblocks.
Where would they get that idea from? everywhere
That is the issue with FCAS. France wants all of the pie.
However, I agree that if India and france can get a solid foundation. It would be for the betterment of both countries.
At the end of the day, being a developing country, we may not always afford the highest quality next-generation technology. Our requirements, however, demand a larger scale and, like your situation, we cannot allocate all our resources to a single multi-role fighter and consider it sufficient. We will always need a combination of high-quality and more affordable options. Therefore, budget constraints are a constant concern. Fortunately, as the economy improves and our modernization budget increases, there is a significant opportunity for collaboration and progress.