Don't intend to hijack this thread...mods please delete or move this post if irrelevantKorea and Türkiye were several decades long partners of LM and GE. NATO and F-35 partnerships alone we have and Korea doesn't are huge advantages despite that we were behind Korea. We had no partnerships in rocket production so we are barely at the same level of children that make rockets in their garages in US that end up breaking the 100km line. India is in the elite tier of space technologies. Freaking Iran is decades ahead of us in rocket tech. So there is that.
We're pretty good with strategic systems like missiles, artillery and rocket tech, ADs', rotary wing, AWACS, naval platforms etc but they simply don't make the cut for exports or even during a limited conflict. Our beef with pakistan or the terrorist menace in Kashmir is primarily limited to CI/CT ops or border skirmishes where you're not firing a BM/CM or dropping tons of JDAMs and that's where tactical platforms come into play which Turkey has mastered
A fighter jet program is simply not developing a jet but the scientific research that goes into the associated tech (avionics, EW, sensors, stealth etc) and establishing the required supply chain. After our LCA Tejas Mk-1 which used several Israeli, Russian, French and American sub-systems, majority of it were indigenized in the Mk-1A from AESA, avionics, EW and integrated several indigenous weapons with only the ejection seat (Martin Baker) and engine (GE-404/414) being the primary imports. But the Mk-2 is delayed since IAF top brass wants more Rafales and are constantly changing requirements of indigenous programs so they can eventually kill the project by citing delays and go the import route. We're also now embarking on a $7.5B program to indigenously upgrade around 90 Su-30 MKIs' which is like $80-85M ish per unit which seems pricey considering considering that most of the upgrades are from domestic sources while a brand new Su-35 costs around $100M but we all know where a major chunk of that $7.5B is going to
The import lobby penetrated so deep into the Indian defense procurement committees that something as basic as an assault rifle is being imported or built via JV
This my friend is an M72 Assault Rifle developed by an Indian firm SSS Defence. Looks pretty decent imo and some of our SF units have also tested it and had great things to say about it
But IA's top brass decided to go for an AK-203 instead solely because they received kickbacks. Heck we're not even receiving an AK-203 but a hybrid of 103 and 203
These are just a couple of examples but given the push for indigenization by the Turkish govt and armed forces in both strategic and tactical levels, I wouldn't be surprised if y'all are on par with Israel, Germany, Spain, Italy etc in terms of defense exports in the next couple of decades
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