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Indian Air Force Vice Chief: We Don’t Even Match Up With Pakistan As Far As Defense Goes

Two days after he said women could be recruited as fighter pilots only if they did not become mothers till a certain age, Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal P K Barbora on Thursday took a swipe at the political class, saying politics over defense purchases impinged “very badly” on the country’s military requirements.
“As far as defense goes, we don’t even match up with Pakistan,” Barbora, while referring to Defense exports, told an aerospace seminar organized in New Delhi by the CII.
“The internal politics over the years is such that whatever defense requirements are cleared by the government, they are opposed by the opposition parties and the same happens when roles change and the opposition sits in government. That impinges very badly on our defense requirements.”
He asked the private defense industry to take note of the China example on reverse engineering of defense technologies. “Forget about ethics. China has done reverse engineering. Has anyone ever had the courage to ask China why are you doing it? No one cares a hoot. If you can’t do it yourself, you should know how to do reverse engineering.”
He took on the defense PSU sector, especially in the aviation industry, saying India does not even contribute to one percent of the global industry. He said Indian PSUs have remained happy manufacturing doors of Airbus aircraft while China has gone ahead and started mass producing commercial jets.

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