http://desicritics.org/ Superior South Asian bloggers on Culture, Media, Politics, Sport, Business, and Technology. en Copyright 2006 by the authors Sun, 11 Jun 2006 22:49:53 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss BC custom software http://desicritics.org/2006/06/10/114904.php#comment-13198 Apollo -- MTCR is was created as a LEGAL regime to stop countries from achieving missile capabilities that were WITHIN THEIR TECHNICAL REACH. Notice that nobody has bothered to create the equivalent of MTCR in connection with combat aircraft or Main Battle Tanks. Translation: State-of-the-art combat aircraft and Main Battle Tanks are much harder to build than ballistic missiles, which is why nobody is sufficiently afraid of indigenous Third World combat aircraft to try and organize a legal regime to constrain their development. 13198@desicritics.org Sun, 11 Jun 2006 22:49:53 EDT http://desicritics.org/2006/06/10/114904.php#comment-13160 Also let me tell you, the power of ordering billion dollar milatary equipment goes a big way as a major diplomatic advantage during negotiations... Especially when there are several equipment developers and we have decent relationship with all.. major equipment manufacturers are USA,Russia and isreal.. and we have decent relationship with USA and Isreal, more than decent relationship with Russia. However indigenous manufacturing has already started.. think about the success of brahmos.. my vote is to order most of the military requirement for atleast 10 more yrs and most importantly use it as a major diplomatic force in negotiations..simultaneously give push for indigenous development like in the case of brahmos 13160@desicritics.org Sun, 11 Jun 2006 03:10:30 EDT http://desicritics.org/2006/06/10/114904.php#comment-13153 @sanjay THe Arjun MBT project did not fail because of technical imcompetence but due to poor planning and mismanagement that is endemic in all government departments. There is ample evidence to prove that the government handled the Arjun and LCA like a PWD project. Our establishment is incapable of thinking proactively and planning ahead. Every project in the country is stalled for some reason or the other because some bureaucrat or politician did not get his cut. here is a link which says what really went wrong with the Arjun project and how things could have been done differently. http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORCES/Army/Articles/Article46.html Missile capability indeed is very difficult to acheive. that is why there is the MTCR to prohibit countries from selling Missiles of more than 300km range. It needs precision engineering and it needs special alloys and very complex guidance systems. why no one is bothered about tanks or planes getting into hands of terrorists? They can do much more with car bombs and hijacked airliners itself. They are Non-state actors who supposedly have no state to call their own and thus cannot field regular armies. @shantanu The defence capacity of singapore and taiwan is indeed quite strong. taiwan is well armed and can give a bloody nose to the chinese if they invade so can singapore against any of its neighbours if they create trouble. even switzerland has a very strong army which effectively deterred both the sides in the World wars. Security is first all important or else whatever wealth u build will end up being taken as loot by your adversary or at best u will be prone to endemic blackmailing and arm twisting by the stronger powers. 13153@desicritics.org Sat, 10 Jun 2006 23:46:37 EDT http://desicritics.org/2006/06/10/114904.php#comment-13152 @sanjay THe Arjun MBT project did not fail because of technical imcompetence but due to poor planning and mismanagement that is endemic in all government departments. There is ample evidence to prove that the government handled the Arjun and LCA like a PWD project. Our establishment is incapable of thinking proactively and planning ahead. Every project in the country is stalled for some reason or the other because some bureaucrat or politician did not get his cut. here is a link which says what really went wrong with the Arjun project and how things could have been done differently. http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORCES/Army/Articles/Article46.html Missile capability indeed is very difficult to acheive. that is why there is the MTCR to prohibit countries from selling Missiles of more than 300km range. It needs precision engineering and it needs special alloys and very complex guidance systems. To answer ur question abt why no one is bothered about tanks or planes getting into hands of terrorists? They can do much more with car bombs and hijacked airliners itself. They are Non-state actors who supposedly have no state to call their own and thus cannot field regular armies with tanks, planes, ships etc... @shantanu The defence capacity of singapore and taiwan is indeed quite strong. Taiwan is well armed and can give a bloody nose to the Chinese if they invade so can singapore against any of its neighbours if they create trouble. even switzerland has a very strong army which effectively deterred both the sides in the World wars. Security is first all important or else whatever wealth u build will end up being taken as loot by your adversary or at best u will be prone to endemic blackmailing and arm twisting by the stronger powers. 13152@desicritics.org Sat, 10 Jun 2006 23:43:51 EDT http://desicritics.org/2006/06/10/114904.php#comment-13145 If you have a strong economy , in this day and age , how strong an army do you need ? What is the defenc capacity of say Singapore or Taiwan or many others? What is the point of invesing in missile systems and the like when it is very unlikely that we will ever use them ? A country does not exist just to exist but to provide a decent life to its citizens - but if all its money is going to be sucked away in defence deals , what money will be available to look after its citizens. The US and others who have powerful armies do so after ensuring that their own people are well looked after and not before 13145@desicritics.org Sat, 10 Jun 2006 20:08:49 EDT http://desicritics.org/2006/06/10/114904.php#comment-13134 Sumanth, to develop weapon systems that are good, we need a research based industrial economy, or a strong and organized agriculture economy. India does not have both. 13134@desicritics.org Sat, 10 Jun 2006 15:26:31 EDT http://desicritics.org/2006/06/10/114904.php#comment-13133 Look at India's homegrown Arjun Main Battle Tank -- it sucks. The DRDO won't admit that it's garbage, and the military is politically obligated to buy some, but it keeps dropping the number that it will order. Because everybody knows it's a piece of crap. Same thing with the Light Combat Aircraft. The release dates for these types of weapons systems keep getting pushed back, and the govt keeps scrambling to come up with with excuses to keep the projects alive ("maybe we can sell it for export, even if we don't use it") The fact is that rudimentary missile and bomb capability are far easier to achieve than state-of-the-art conventional weapons platforms like fighter jets and MBTs. (You always see firstworld powers worrying that terrorists will build a bomb or missile, but you never see them worrying that terrorists will build a sophisticated F-15 -- that would be ridiculous.) So India can pull off the primitive Agni series, but we can see from the track record that its home-made warplanes and tanks are so bad that it's far better off ordering foreign systems that will actually work well. 13133@desicritics.org Sat, 10 Jun 2006 15:19:13 EDT