Should we buy new weapons

[padhu]

Our politicians have always gloted over the fact that Pakistan has baught their weapons from china, korea etc, while our weapons are indigenious.

If you'll have read all the articles in the echarcha defence section, then you must have realised that our indigenious systems are not at par.

So should we also spend the money which we spend on our defence industry , to go out into the arms market and buy better arms and amunition for us.

I dont think it is shamefull if these weapons can give us a better edge over our enemy and is cheaper too in the long run, considering that no local project has come out before a period of 4 years.


what say you ?

Do we have enough money for that? I thought that we spent 90 percent of the defense budget in salaries. Correct me if I am wrong.

[BawaNo1]

Buying weapons is indeed a good option coz it gets you the quality end product without the headache and the cost involved in the R&D, prototypes, etc. However - it isolates you from those very points when you have to use/ mantain or further upgrade it. You are at the mercy of the original supplier wheo may or maynot be inclined to do so at that time....

reverse engg is definately an option - but on this you spend a lot of time and energy - and end up with what is usually obsolete by the time you actually can use it.

Solely depending on R&D and the bravado that one is good enough and has all the capabilities also gets you to the same spot as above (obsolete, or useless) but takes roughly 4 times the money and even more time....

so what are the choices? in my opinion, the choice should be conciously made of what we should make (develop) and what we should buy (short term benefit or not).... that way, one isnt left lagging only coz nothing is on schedule -

somehow, india doesnt seem to get this formula right... r&d projects do take long and these present inordinate ones should definately be made accountable - but the blundering way of making purchases - of already obsolete stuffs (recently i think there was a big boo-ha on this) or of things that are unusable/ pathetic in the conditions we need them to operate.

Just getting a good deal (sometimes not even that - maybe only to the vested interests guys) does not make something ideal. This is where we need to be firm. Okay, so it costs - but we need this - we got to have it!

Money spent here is well spent, there can be no doubt about it.

so - should we buy? yes - but prudently!