this defence offset policy has caused companies to pull out from gun helicopter competition.This should be avoided at all costs.
.We need to buy the stuff and start reverse engineering it just like china does it.
Actually agree to some extent. The ministry of defense hasnt created any whitepaper at all on whats the next step in industrialization. There must be some kind of end goal in mind for anything and to reach that there can be n paths. Though for India the path seems to be the end itself.
Tots need to be a path not the end goal. And how long will the path be followed? Again no answers. So it seems like ToT is an end in itself to continue for the distant future.
India has had defense relationship with Russia for a long time. Did we see that lead to independent manufacturing in numbers? 30-40 years in ToT was not sufficient for independent manufacturing in those areas?
We make our own planes now. Whats the benefit of going for a ToT? What value add does it give? By the time you are at the next step its again a new tech that is current and again we go for ToT? I dont have an issue with ToT except that it be used as a step with specific end goals and timelines to be independent, with maybe 5-10% of the projects needing imports or tech transfer. We Indians are loathe to meet timelines something that has been well noted by our friends in China.
We seem to be caught between lack of ambition(to be No 1) and unrealistic dreams(run before you walk examples quite common in the many projects).
I see many folks drooling at the thought of ToT? Why? Why cant we do the same stuff maybe of lessor tech and then proceed to reach the higher end in a few years? Who gave the western countries the tech? Was it aliens? Why do we need so much handholding?
e.g. What tech is needed to build something like a Bofors gun? Is it space age tech? Why dont we build quality artillary systems en masse then. The main issues that need to be resolved first will have a far more impact on defense industrialization then some new gizmo that in the end isnt likely to be a war changer in the end either wrt to China or Pakistan.