India is one of the top defence countries in the world, but all other nations in the top are having their own defence systems, equipments and vehicles.. India always depends on foreign equipments like russia,israel,US and other countries.. why does india lacks developing its own defense needs?
Israel actually takes some US and French, technology and mixes it in with their own and creates, what they market as Israeli. Same with France to some extent.
The US is pretty much a leading developer and at times has approached others for development and purchases because it can be cheaper.
For instance, they use a german gun on their mbt.
French avoinics here and there on a f-16 varient, which i forgot.
they are a large military industrail base, so was the USSR.
India simply doesn't have the R&D development costs, sometimes the cost is too great, time limit is not enough or quality can not be assured.
because of this, india has the option of forign or domestic bidders.
india does produce a handfull of its "own" equipment, including rifles and mbts.
the mbt that india can produce with out russian assistance is the t-72, which is a liecensed copy fully produced in india, which may have been the reason for the quick purchase of t-90 tot.
liecense production is one way to setup the infastructure and training required to manufacture defence equipment inhome.
it skips the research phase.
machines can be shipped from forign bidders, and in the future used to build their own projects.
the biggest time consuming cost on a new project is the manufacturing stage where quality must be assured for the first batch and to be standardized. expecially when their was no existing manufacturing line.
example would be the j-11 liecense production which gave china the the equipment to mass produce their own next generation figher bombers.
the capability has to be built slow. but it is not neccessary.
modern warfare doesn't require it.
the modern war is short, and the enemies reach is deep.