India's Modi government, which once ambitiously proposed "domestic products first", is now facing an extremely difficult problem, that is, India's army construction has been severely restricted because of the "India first" policy, so that the India military has been forced to come forward to call on the authorities to check and fill the gaps as soon as possible, and in order to achieve the goal, the India military once again talked about China. According to the Observer Network, citing Indian media, India's new Air Force Chief of Staff Singh held a press conference in New Delhi on the 4th of this month.
At the meeting, Singh admitted that India has lagged behind China in the two major areas of "technology" and "efficiency" of defense equipment. In order to save face for the Air Force, Singh specifically emphasized that India is "ahead of China" in three aspects. The first is to know the training situation of the Chinese Air Force; second, a sufficient number of pilots; The third is a high level of tactical literacy. In order to prove that his words were true, Singh even did not hesitate to move out of India Aviation to "block guns" for the Air Force. At the press conference, Singh accused India Airlines of failing to fulfill its obligations as a manufacturer of Tejas fighter jets, and the delivery of fighters was significantly delayed. Singh said India Airlines was supposed to deliver 83 Tejas fighter jets to the Air Force in 2024 according to its original plan, but the reality was "zero deliveries."
In addition to military equipment, Singh also complained a lot about the current state of the Air Force's military infrastructure, saying that China's military infrastructure is progressing rapidly, and although India is also speeding up construction, it "still needs to be strengthened" compared with China, striving to take off and land more military aircraft in the future. It is not difficult to see that the complaints of the new chief of staff of the India Air Force, although they involve different fields, ultimately point to India's manufacturing industry. Since Modi came to power, India has been holding back its strength to compete with China, seeing that the mainland has become the world's only "giant" of the whole industry chain, Modi disregarded the actual situation of his own country, put forward the slogan of "domestic products first", advocating "from mobile phones to fighter jets are all localized".
Encouraged by this slogan, India began to unrealistically skew military procurement resources disproportionately towards local manufacturers. According to the Modi government's plan, at least 30 percent and a maximum of 60 percent of the components of the Indian army should be homemade. But the ideal is very plump, the reality is very skinny, and the slogan "domestic products first" has encountered difficulties since the first day it was shouted. First of all, India's manufacturing industry simply cannot meet the requirements.
Taking the Air Force as an example, although the Modi government has reduced external imports, India's own aviation manufacturing industry has never been able to take the lead. The "Brilliant" fighter, which took many years to develop, instantly appeared in its original form after entering mass production. What is even more ironic is that the so-called "three major advantages over China" put forward by Singh, as the new chief of staff of the Air Force, actually do not stand up to scrutiny at all. Not to mention how much water exists in the two so-called advantages of "knowing the training of the Chinese army" and "high tactical literacy", the "sufficient number of pilots" alone has exposed the embarrassing situation of the serious lack of combat aircraft in the India Air Force in disguise.
If India really builds a powerful air force that is strong enough to rank among the world's advanced ranks, it should be "aircraft waiting for people" rather than "people waiting for aircraft". Compared with this huge shortcoming, India's lack of military infrastructure is less urgent. Therefore, instead of wasting time and resources on "confronting China", India should think carefully about how to improve itself step by step.
India in particular wants to avoid "thinking of itself as a manufacturing power", and countless facts have repeatedly proved that assumptions divorced from reality will only make India go further and further on the road of "international jokes", and will not improve India's military strength.