Fighter Jet Air Strike download the new version

India sourced planes like the C-17, C-130 and the Boeing P8I maritime reconnaissance planes. Ten years later, in 2005, the two signed a ‘framework of defence relationship’. In 1995, the two agreed on having ‘defence relations’. The India-US strategic relations took baby steps after the Cold War. It allowed Soviet Union to intervene to stall a possible US strike during the 1971 Indo-Pak war. New Delhi was officially ‘non-aligned’ during the Cold War (1945-1991) but was an ally of the Soviet Union, including signing in August 1971 the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation. The report compared the five-year period with the previous five-year period to show that Russia’s share in India’s market was declining. It said: “Russia remains the largest supplier of major arms and supplied 45 per cent of all Indian imports.” France and the US were second and third with 29 per cent and 11 per cent share, respectively.

Sweden-based think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in March released its assessment for a five-year period (2018-2022). It sold the cutting-edge Rafale jets in 2019 and in 1980s, provided the Mirage 2000 jets, the latest at the time. Similarly, France joined hands with India to make the Scorpene class submarines in India. Moscow handheld India in the nuclear submarine programme it converted a warship into an aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, and supplied the S400 air-defence missile system. India and Russia co-produced the BrahMos missile. In the past 60 years, India has licensed-produced military equipment of Russian/Soviet Union parentage, including T-90 tanks, Sukhoi 30 MKI and MiG-21 jets.

For now, it’s just about getting partners for the elusive military technology as threats from China rise. From New Delhi’s point of view, it would be imprudent to term the shift pro-American, or ‘moving away’ from Russia, its longstanding ally. The bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Washington DC on June 22 had unprecedented announcements on technology sharing. The other technologies are dual-use, which aid critical applications of modern-day militaries during peace and conflict.

Aero-engines and armed drones are military-use equipment. After the United States offered India cutting-edge, elusive and restricted technologies on making aero-engines for fighter jets, armed drones, semiconductors, space-based radars, quantum computing and 6G communications, New Delhi has made a strategic shift - away from being Russia-centric or France-centric - to access such technologies.

Fighter Jet Air Strike download the new version