Don't get me wrong, One should rather indulge in projects one can complete in time rather than getting involved in more than one can handle, These all projects are brilliant but problem is that having so many things on the plate means everything gets less attention and not one project is being completed. Flame on but that's the truth, IMHO These politicians announce such projects to get cheap political gains and nothing more
Dude, what political gains can they get from announcing defence projects? You really think they get votes for announcing stealth UCAVs? The common voter in India is not concerned one bit about defence. The percentage of Indians who can name the three service chiefs would be miniscule, probably a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population. Ask any Indian here how many of their family members or friends know what AURA is or can even name the army chief. That's how irrelevant the armed forces are for most people in India.
This is the thing about being politicians. If they cut defence spending or projects, everyone says they are playing for votes. If they increase it, people say they are playing for votes. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
Politicians get votes for promising whatever fulfills the day to day necessities. Be it freebies like 2 rupee a kg rice, or development, or jobs. No politician in India has ever won an election by promising stealth aircrafts or UAVs or submarines.
I almost agree with your first sentence. They really should take it step by step - designing a current state of the art UAV or UCAV, before planning for a stealthy one, with its projected specs exceeding anything that any country has come up with. Like they should have maybe produced a 100 or so LCAs that are not super-duper and unbeatable in every regard, but something the equivalent of JF-17, before moving on to Mark-2s. If they had done that, we would have already had a hundred of those, and probably would have been giving IOC to the mark-2s by now.
But I don't agree that India shouldnt take up too many projects - because even now, the number of defence industries we have are miniscule compared to the requirements of a military of our size. We can take on as many projects as we want, if we go about it in a realistic way - we have the money, and manpower.
