I must say we doing the same mistake again by joining hands with them for pak fa and MTA.. Just simply concentrate on our indigineous weapon system like LCA MK2,AMCA ,SARAS ,AURA etc .. Atleast we can say these stuff will be with us only.
There a some things you have to understand:
1) Exactly to not be arms twisted, or surprised by later price hikes, we went to partnerships like Su 30 MKI, Brahmos, FGFA, or MRTA. Beeing a partner and having involvement in these projects, gives us way more control and less risk of such kind of problems, that we have when we are a simple buyer only.
2) That is not special to Russia, but to any country that sells us their arms, look at the US and C17 now. They now exactly there is no other option in this class and raised the price dramatically.
3) Be realistic please! LCA not ready, Saras not ready, AMCA and AURA only on paper and with our present capabilities they will remain a dream if we go for it alone.
India is a rising power, no doubt about that! But come on folks, lets face the reality and don't let us hype some minor successes, we have still a long long way to go.
hope you heard about turbomeca debacle ?? and thankfully there nothing russian in dhruv else again we have to pay from our noses.Arjun mbt is already developed without russian assistance and CVRDE started manufacturing this already,its no longer looking for customer as indian army is quiet enough to fulfill there order bag and you can expect couple of more order here with 124 +124 within 2years.USE Indian ,buy Indian that should be our moto
Turbomecca debacle, when did that happen? Last time I checked IAF is very happy to get Shakti engine for Dhruv and LCH and ask yourself why they can ask for more money to re-design Shakti engine to be used in HALs LUH? Because we are not able to do it alone, nor to develop an own engine, as it was planed in the begining. Also please check how much equipment in Arjun is foreign origin, that doesn't mean it is not an indigenous development, but that we still need a lot of stuff from them, to develop latest arms.
Mjnaushad is correct about Dhruv, because we went the right way then and now learned to do more alone as we proved with LCH and in future LUH, or MUH. With LCA instead we did exactly the opposite, first tried to do it alone and now search for consultancy, or partnerships.
As long as we are not at a comparable level in the aero industry like most major powers and we don't want to be dependent on others, partnerships and co-developments are the best and safest way to go!