Like many countries, India has, for many years, neglected the modernization of its armed forces, in favor of more lucrative actions from an electoral point of view, or otherwise... At the same time, Pakistan, and especially the China, respected trajectories of modernization and strengthening of their armed forces in particularly well-controlled planning, so that today, New Delhi finds itself having to finance a very large number of Defense programs, all equally strategic. than the others. Added to this is an often chaotic management of its acquisition programs, as was the case, for example, with the MMRCA program, which should have enabled the Indian air forces to have nearly a hundred of them in 2020. planes Rafale “make in India”, which would naturally have profoundly modified the balance of power vis-à-vis its two neighbors. Just observe the public enthusiasm generated by the arrival of the first 5 Rafale india in the country to be convinced.
Among the programs that have had the most chaotic management in India, at the top of the ranking is the one relating to the replacement of the Iliouchine Il-78 tanker aircraft of the Indian Air Force, essential aircraft to make the most of the reach and the endurance of modern combat aircraft like the Rafale, the Mirage 2000 or the Su-30MKI. And this is especially true since neither China nor Pakistan has a significant advantage in this area, at least for the moment. Twice, in 2010 then in 2016, the Airbus A330 MRTT won the international competition against American and Russian aircraft, and on two occasions, the Indian authorities canceled the program, officially for cost reasons.
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