The first question comes to my mind when i hear this is, Do we have capacity to build 6 more???? Almost all the shipyards are running in capacity and almost all of them have further orders pending with them.....
That's the funny part, that the things MoD / government are announcing doesn't really fit to what they actually do and that confuses everybody!
They say things like "make in India" and India will be self reliant and the more they repeat it the more people will believe it, but the reality is different!
NDAs "make in India" policy is just a new name for the "buy and make" policy of the former government and both have the same aim, of making India to a defence production hub, by increasing
manufacturing (not development) in India!
So in both cases, we are licence producing foreign arms and techs in India, be it for our own forces or with the aim to export them.
But licence production doesn't make India self reliant!
But licence production doesn't make Indian defence companies more capable in developing arms and techs!
But licence production doesn't even benefit our companies in the first place, but foreign companies that outsource basic production to India, to offer their arms and techs at lower costs on the export market!
What is better for Indian forces? A medium class helicopter developed in India and according to the requirements of the Indian forces, or a foreign helicopter licence produced in India?
What will make India self reliant? Developing and producing a helicopter, or licence producing a foreign one?
What will give Indian defence industry more benefits? Exporting an indigenous helicopter, or licence producing a foreign helicopter that will be exported?
NDA is far away from being pro indigenous developments, since they didn't cut any procurement in favour of an indigenous development (HAL LUH in favour for foreign LUH, Naval Dhruv for IN and ICG instead of foreign naval LUH, development of indigenous medium class helicopter, instead of foreign medium class helicopter, LCA instead of MMRCA, development of indigenous SSK instead of a foreign SSK...), but they are pro privat industry only, since all they want the same foreign arms, just produced by another Indian company. So we might end up building 6 + 6 Scorpenes in India, but from 2 different Indian shipyards. Anybody else seeing delays and cost-overruns coming?