Defective defence equipment a concern for Indo-Russia ties

India sourced 73 per cent of its defence supplies from Russia between 2001 and 2007. Such dependence on one supplier could become a liability and would thwart domestic industrial capability, according to former Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash.

The delay in meeting contractual obligations — such as the delivery of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov — and delivery of faulty equipment, as in the reports of Russia grounding a part of its MiG-29 aircraft fleet due to structural defects is prejudicing a significant section of the armed forces, especially young officers, against Russian equipment, warned Admiral Prakash while speaking at the recent meet on India-Russia strategic dialogue at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in the capital.

Strategic affairs experts from Russia’s Institute of Strategic Studies and Russian Academy of Sciences acknowledged that the downturn in defence cooperation between India and Russia is largely due to the dismal state of Russia’s defence research and development (R&D) capabilities after the break-up of the Soviet Union and the resultant financial crunch in Russia during the 1990s.

Between 1992 and 2007, the difference between the money spent on R&D by the US and Russia was $822 billion and this has had a telling effect on the quality of defence equipment produced in Russia, especially in terms of supply of spare parts, life-cycle support and technical documentation.

According to IDSA deputy director-general Thomas Mathew, Russia intends to spend $5 billion for R&D over the next five years — an indication of the dismal state of Moscow’s R&D capabilities.

The fact that India now has an option to source its military equipment and defence systems from other countries, especially the US, France and Israel, has registered among Russian policymakers.

However, they added that it would take another 2-3 years for defence cooperation to get back on track.

In the future, it is imperative to work on a legal framework to safeguard intellectual property rights over innovations achieved during joint ventures as this would remove many hurdles in defence cooperation, said Professor Vladimir Lopatin of Moscow-based National Scientific Research Institute of Intellectual Property.