Narendra Modi is remaking India’s 1.4m strong military

The goal is to close the gap with China

Nov 29th 2023

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, often dons fatigues while visiting troops in Kashmir. On November 25th he went one better by squeezing into a flight suit and taking a sortie over Bangalore in a Tejas fighter jet. The Indian-designed plane embodies Mr Modi’s push for India to make more of its own weapons. It also embodies much of what has gone wrong with the country’s defence. The jet is 20 years behind schedule, underpowered, and disdained by Indian pilots.

India’s growing geopolitical clout is based in large part on a hope that it can balance Chinese power. That makes the modernisation of the partly antiquated Indian armed forces—the second biggest of any country, with 1.4m full-time personnel—a matter of global interest. Follies like the Tejas make it easy to be pessimistic. The forces are also heavily reliant on Soviet-legacy hardware. Successful modernisation, assuming it happens, is likely to take decades. Yet a close look at India’s defence efforts reveals several areas of significant and underappreciated progress.

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