Global Arms Industry From Hi-Tech To Lo-Tech

The international arms industry is now globalised. Gone are the days when a country could engage in techno-nationalism and build a weapons system purely at home—with the exception of a few nations like the US, Russia, China, and France. Instead, countries either collaborate to build systems or include a range of components from other nations. Considering this phenomenon, Indian defence production has to be broken into three categories: that which cannot be imported, that which can be assembled and co-produced in India, and that which can realistically be made in India.

- Amit Gupta

The international arms industry is both globalised and building weapons that range from new game changing 21st technologies— such as hypersonic glide weapons, underwater drones, and stealthy fifth generation fighter aircraft—to the more rudimentary 20th century systems that still cause considerable havoc when used in the modern battlefield. The wars of the 21st century in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and a number of civil wars elsewhere have led to the continued need for weapons systems that are cheap, time-honoured, and rudimentary, but deadly in their effect. What this has done is that there is a huge market for a range of varied products depending on the demands of the modern battlefields.

Nature of 21st century warfare

While military planners in the twentyfirst century continue to prepare for interstate conflicts, and acquire systems that would increase lethality in such conflicts, the vast number of wars in the world now are civil wars or insurgencies. The United States, faced by the rise of Chinese and Russian military capabilities, particularly in the non-strategic nuclear realm, has announced plans to build a range of futuristic weapons systems that will allow Washington to deal with a range of contingencies and to ensure that deterrence prevails at the lowest levels of the conflict spectrum. Thus, the 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review discusses building a small number of submarine launched ballistic missiles with low-yield nuclear weapons, a new submarine launched cruise missile, an air delivered long-range cruise missile, as well as the futuristic B-21 bomber.