US weapons won't wean India off Russia

India's multi-billion-dollar purchases of US arms are less about shifting its reliance on Russian defence equipment and moving towards the West-it's more about developing its own domestic weapons industry, security officials and analysts say.

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India is the world's biggest arms importer but almost all of its major weapons purchases now include provisions for joint manufacture or technology transfer, irrespective of which country it is dealing with.

Russia's war in Ukraine has disrupted some military supplies to India, reinforcing New Delhi's long-term desire to diversify imports or replace them with home-built hardware, Indian defence officials said.

India bought weapons worth over $60 billion in the last 20 years, of which 65% or nearly $39 billion were from Russia, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh has said that India intends to order weapons from the domestic arms industry worth over $100 billion over the next decade.