What role did foreign influence and internal politics play in hindering India's early fighter jet programs like the Marut?

In the 15 years after independence, India bought 214 combat aircraft from the French and 55 from the US, as well as 262 from the British, with another 230 manufactured in India under licence from the UK. In 1962, India made its first substantial purchase of offensive equipment from the Soviets when it agreed to buy just twelve MiG-21 aircraft. The Soviet fighter jet production strategy was different from the west – they value on quantity more than quality. Hence Soviet jets had problem of reliability for jet engine, instrumentation, safety gadgets etc.

The relationship began with a visit by Indian PM Nehru to the Soviet Union in June 1955, and First Secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev’s return trip to India in the fall of 1955. While in India, Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union supported Indian sovereignty over the disputed territory of the Kashmir region and over Portuguese coastal enclaves such as Goa. The Soviet Union's (now Russia) strong relations with India had a negative impact upon both Soviet relations with the People's Republic of China and Indian relations with the PRC, during the Khrushchev period. The Soviet Union declared its neutrality during the 1959 border dispute and the Sino-Indian war of October 1962, although the Chinese strongly objected. The Soviet Union gave India substantial economic and military assistance during the Khrushchev period, and by 1960 India had received more Soviet assistance than China had. This disparity became another point of contention in Sino-Soviet relations. In 1962 the Soviet Union agreed to transfer technology to co-produce the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 jet fighter in India, which the Soviet Union had earlier denied to China. So, Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) started license manufacture (read assembly) of MiG-21.

At the same time, HAL developed its own Marut fighter jet with help of German engineer Kurt Tank and his team of brilliant German and Indian engineers. Marut was intellectual property of HAL. PM Nehru saw test flight of Marut along with Kurt Tank. Marut had a major technical issues like slow speed due to less powerful engine as it was designed for sub-sonic speed. Only limited production was done and three squadron of Maruts inducted since 1967 and hence cost of production was high. On the other hand, MiG-21 was supersonic and best in its class in early 1960s. Another advantage of MiG-21 was the cheap or friendship price. Due to this cost advantage, India abandoned Marut project instead of scaling it up. The Marut engine and other issues could have got solved if a sustained ‘make in India’ mission mode was applied. Instead, India purchased more than 800 cheap MiG-21 from USSR and also MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-27 (Bahadur) and MiG-29 along with MIG-29K for Navy.

India purchased 800 plus MiG-21 starting from early 1960s when Indian economy was small but Dr. Manmohan Singh UPA government could not purchase 114 MRFA Rafale fighter jets when Indian economy was growing fast and much larger than what used to be in 1960s. In 2013, UPA defence minister AK Antony said they have no money for MRFA deal. Meanwhile vintage MiG-21 continue to met with accidents and dubbed as flying coffin and widow maker. In 2012, the then Defense Minister AK Antony had said in Parliament that a total of 872 MiG-21s were purchased from USSR/Russia, out of which more than half have met with accidents (not war casualty). According to a data of 1990, the accident rate was 2.89 in about 10 thousand flying hours. What is the learning from these events?

Nehru government made blunder by not promoting indigenous fighter jet mission when India was the first country in Asia (outside Japan) to have built a fighter jet. HAL, a defence PSU remained happy with steady flow of assembly jobs for license manufacturing of jets (read screw driver assembly) and never bothered about innovation.

DRDO remained a ‘dead-dog research defence organisation’ with almost no initiative in 1960s and 1970s. In early 1980s, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA, later named Tejas) started but remained dead slow due to lack of private player participation. DRDO’s Kaveri engine development project from scratch for LCA is another failed project which started in early 1980s and not yet reached closure phase in 2025. On the other hand, India had its own fighter jet engine in early 1960s inside Marut. ADA under DRDO, which developed LCA, which made first test flight in 2001, two decades after project inception. Enhancements like Tejas-1A and serial production ramp-up remained a major concern due to inherent inefficiencies in ‘sarkari’ HAL. For a comparison, just see how fast China developed its military aircraft industry indigenously. China may have copied and stolen technology but ultimately actual military strength matters.

Sometimes, free gifts harm economy and prevent local technology development. This is the reason Nehruvian socialist model failed and India became bankrupt in 1991. Arvind Kejriwal’s (ex-Delhi CM) freebie model is equally dangerous for India. The same model is applied recently in Karnataka and the state is facing financial crisis within 2-3 years. This is more relevant now when USA President Donald Trump initiated trade restriction with India. A relatively less known IT company ZOHO is trying to compete with much superior Google and Meta. The Japanese were always reluctant to use American technology after the WW-II defeat and made sustained effort to develop their own technology. China is doing the same.