4 he Indian Defence Industry Struggling with Change Richard A. Bitzinger G reat nations, it can be said, have great arms industries. 1 To put it another way, it is nearly impossible for a country to be a great power if it must rely on foreign suppliers to outit its military. Not only would that country be susceptible to arms embargoes and other sanctions that could constrain or constrict its military power, but it would leave itself vulnerable to outside forces who could use those dependencies to intimidate and coerce that country into engaging in actions or pursuing policies—political, economic, or otherwise—that might go against its wishes. Consequently, many countries automatically equate great power status with autarky, or self-suiciency, when it comes to armaments production. India is an aspiring great power that has long harboured the goal of possessing a technologically advanced self-suicient arms industry (Cohen and Dasgupta 2010; Bedi 2005; Mohanty 2009, 2004; Pardesi and Matthews 2007; Singh 2000). hese ambitions go back to more than 50 years, when the country attempted to design and build its own ighter aircraft, the HF-24 Marut. Although a technological failure, it did not dampen India’s determination to one day becoming a major arms- producing nation, capable of meeting most, if not all its requirements for self-defence—and therefore great-power status—through indigenous means. his quest for autarky and stature, for example, drove the country’s nuclear weapons programme. As India’s economic power has expanded, and as its technological prowess in certain areas (such as information