The Centre is planning to carry out a major change in the deployment of defence attaches overseas in a bid to boost exports of made-in-India weapons.

According to an report,

The department of military affairs and the department of defence are carrying out fresh reforms after Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed ways to increase defence exports from India at the combined commanders’ conference last month.

Senior defence officials told ANI that military or defence attaches will now be deployed in countries where they can help in increasing defence exports, including products from both the public and private sectors.
With the new strategy, India would also cut down military officers posted in countries from where it has been importing military hardware traditionally.

“At a time when we have stopped importing weapon systems from abroad and are insisting on production in India under the Make in India scheme, there is no point in maintaining a significant number of attaches in countries which have been exporting weapon systems to us,” they said.

Thrust on homegrown weapons

India has been promoting the production of indigenous weapons with a goal of cutting dependence on foreign arms under the Modi government’s “Aatmanirbhar (Self-reliant) push”.

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As part of that,

India imposed a virtual ban on imports of several weapons and is buying only highly essential equipment from external sources.

Defence officials said that while positing these officers, the focus would be on countries in Africa, middle eastern countries along with the friendly nations in southeast Asia which have shown interest in Indian equipment like the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles.

A number of Indian public sector units has also opened offices to support the Armenian military to help increase exports.

Officials said that the government is also going to allow the attaches to promote the sale of hardware manufactured by the private sector of the country.

The officials said when Western countries promote the sale of their hardware in India or other countries, their military personnel accompany their sales teams to make the pitch as it is in their national interest and the same can be followed here as well.

The reforms come at a time when India’s export of arms and defence technologies reached an all-time high of Rs 15,920 crore in the 2022-23 financial year. This was a 10-fold increase since 2016-17.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spelled out India’s ambitions to become a major defence hub at the Aero India 2023 in Bengaluru.

The Centre is planning to ramp up India’s arms exports to nearly $5 billion over the next two years.

With ANI Inputs