Joe Shearer
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So, what you basically say is that India mastered all those critical and strategic equipment/weapons systems/technologies which are restricted technologies and are not available on the international market. There was no need to invest too much resources into developing those items which were available to us Viz. engines, radar, guns etc. and only now we have started to indeginise these items.
It wasn't quite so elegant and well-thought through. But yes, more or less.
We know how to make light fighters. So what we imported are medium and heavy fighters.
We know how to make MBTs. We filled a gap by buying appropriate Russian tanks, and there doesn't seem to be scope for the future for such purchases again, unless someone comes up with something astonishing which we absolutely must have.
We know how to make ships up to a frigate's size. Or a destroyer, depending on whether we are using the old US categorisation or the subsequent re-alignment with practice everywhere else. We needed one last aircraft carrier, thought we were getting one cheap, and got our pants taken off. All future carriers will be indigenous.
We do submarines - nuclear submarines. Some very bad procurement planning and lack of coordination at the ministry level made a mess of our conventional submarine programme, so we need those built in a hurry, in the country and out of the country. We hope to pick up conventional submarine manufacturing with this lot being manufactured.
In engines, radars, and guns, and PGMs, we just haven't made the cut. Our design and development of these has been truly horrible. We need to clean up our act. No excuses, no smart answers, just performance.