India’s vice army chief says Pakistan has better military industrial base than India

Expressing displeasure over performance of weapons-manufacturing ordinance factories in his country, India’s India’s Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOAS) Lieutenant General Sarath Chand says Pakistan’s military industrial base is “better” than the ones in India.

According to a report in the Times of India, Chand said: “I would even go to the extent of saying that Pakistan probably has a better industrial base, as far as defence production is concerned, than our country. In fact they export defence equipment abroad, definitely more than what we are doing.”

He was speaking at the inaugural session of AMICON 2017, a two-day conference organised by the Indian army and the Confederation of Indian Industry

He wondered whether the functioning of ordnance factories is because of the assured orders they have or the lack of accountability.

“There is little or no research and development. They do not even have the capability of absorbing the industry through transfer of technology, and in some cases they have even failed to assemble products that have been imported from abroad,” Lt. Gen. Chand said.

“It is very hard to see ordnance factories changing in the present state. Overall it has become an unsuccessful method of supporting our defence requirements,” he said.