My Indian followers,#Russians have benefitted a lot from you guys designing and purchasing #Russian origin gear for them to swoop in and buy some you guys paid to develop or revive. Exhibit A: Su-30MKI becomes Su-30SM. #εpsilon
There are two distinct #Su30 lines, #Indian #Su30MKI at Irkut plant and its derivatives and #Chinese #Su30MKK at KNAAPO plant and its derivatives. The Su-30SM, bought in nos is from MKI lineage. To be fair #Russianairforce also bought 18 Su-30M2s to keep KNAAPO busy before #Su35S
Exhibit B: MiG-29K operated by the #IndianNavy made sure that the #Russians can buy a few for themselves after the #Indian production run was done. Else, they might have stuck to upgrading their Su-33s in the long run.
Exhibit C: #India developed the #Talwarclass frigates based on the Krivak hull design #Russian navy swooped in and bought 6 frigates originally. Their #RussiaUkraineWar killed #Ukrainian engine supply and #IndianNavy is buying 2 incomplete hulls.
Exhibit D: The #Russians casually have a few Indian spec T-90S in storage (note the smoke grenade launchers 1-2-3 config)
Moral of the story, when it comes to weapons sales, everyone is looking to subsidize their own purchases or programs. Its time for Indians to look into using the #Russian tech they already have to build better gear off it where ever possible for eg Tank-Ex, like the #Chinese did.
To be fair, the #USAF #F15EX also uses a platform paid for and developed for the #SaudiArabianairforce's F-15SA program which got more support from the #Qatariairforce's procurement of the #F15QA
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