China outranks India by massive margin in defence production says study
Source – Wion
China has been placed first in self-reliant defence production, while India has been ranked fourth among 12 countries in the Indo-Pacific, according to a study of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an independent research institute on global security.
Japan is second, South Korea is in third place, and Pakistan is at eighth place, according to the study, which measures self-reliance until 2020.
“China dominates the ranking, reaching a self-reliance score more than two and a half times higher than Japan’s,” the study said.
The ranking was published after assessing the defence production of 12 countries, they are: Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
They did not include Vietnam in the final ranking due to lack of data.
The study is based on three indicators.
Arms procurement: Imports, licensed and domestic production as a proportion of the government’s total procurement of major conventional arms
Arms industry: The research highlights the five largest arms companies in each country where data is available, and ranks them by sales of arms and military services in 2020 to both domestic and export customers
Uncrewed maritime vehicles, the sea equivalent of drones: covering both uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) and uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs), meant to provide a qualitative understanding of how countries are engaging domestic research institutes and firms to produce such cutting-edge systems.
The research argues that despite trying to cut imports, India continues to remain dependent on foreign nations for arms needs. From 2016 to 20, it ranked as the second largest importer.
“India’s domestic arms companies provide only 16 per cent of its total procurement. However, the significant arms sales of local firms and the high level of licensed production push India to fourth position in the list. This should be put in perspective against the fact that India is the second largest military spender in the region, after China.”
SIPRI deliberately chose Indo-Pacific as it sees the region as a “maritime theatre”, saying that most of its flashpoints involve navies.
