Ambitious India now world's largest arms importer

[roadrunner]

They are fast. And they chose a better model of borrowing and copying (or not reinventing the wheel as you put it) than India's. But I believe India can do that too. Our PAK-FA collaboration with Russia is one such example. In the end its just finances that matter.

And we dont need to take China head on. Just keep enough firepower to provide a deterrence. Kind of like what Pakistan does vis-a-vis India, if you get my drift.

Reverse engineering is not easy. If it were you can bet India would be doing it. The fact India cannot, but China can, is a problem for you. China IS way ahead of India in R&D for its aero industry. I would say China's aircraft industry is the same as Russia's now. PAK-FA was flying last year, J-XX this year. They're all comparable. America is not much further ahead.

PAK-FA will help, but the Russians aren't going to transfer sensitive technologies over. PAK-FA looks very ordinary from the outside.

[KhalsaWarrior]

so india hasn't been borrowing? i would have thought it would have a big debt to pay.

It has been. We have negative trade balance and a fiscal deficit. But it isn't as big as US' debt. I guess China is the only one amongst the top 10 economies to export more and import less. One reason for India exports less is our own burgeoning domestic market.

[KhalsaWarrior]

Reverse engineering is not easy. If it were you can bet India would be doing it. The fact India cannot, but China can, is a problem for you. China IS way ahead of India in R&D for its aero industry. I would say China's aircraft industry is the same as Russia's now. PAK-FA was flying last year, J-XX this year. They're all comparable. America is not much further ahead.

PAK-FA will help, but the Russians aren't going to transfer sensitive technologies over. PAK-FA looks very ordinary from the outside.

China is ahead and it definitely takes brains to reverse engineer. If we could have done the same when the LCA was first thought up, we could have probably caught up with China. But we decided to do it from scratch ourselves and paid the price. It was simply too impractical.

And I dont doubt our technical skills or our brain-power. If we could reverse engineer satellites (from early US and Soviet models) I see no reason why we cant do it for fighter jets. I think its mainly due to a lack of priority and short-sightedness coupled with bureaucratic bungling.

[khushal]

China is ahead and it definitely takes brains to reverse engineer. If we could have done the same when the LCA was first thought up, we could have probably caught up with China. But we decided to do it from scratch ourselves and paid the price. It was simply too impractical.

And I dont doubt our technical skills or our brain-power. If we could reverse engineer satellites (from early US and Soviet models) I see no reason why we cant do it for fighter jets. I think its mainly due to a lack of priority and short-sightedness coupled with bureaucratic bungling.

I always thought it was because chinas brainspower is staying in china and indias brainpower is transferred to the west.

[KhalsaWarrior]

I always thought it was because chinas brainspower is staying in china and indias brainpower is transferred to the west.

China has experienced equal if not more brain-drain than India.