All Sales Are Final: Why India Regrets Buying a Russian Aircraft Carrier
Buckle up for quite the story. India spent a lot of money for a not-very-good carrier that still needs a lot of work.
Like a lot of countries, India wants the best weapons it can afford. But ideological and financial concerns mean there are a lot of things it won’t buy from the United States or Europe. That pretty much leaves, well, Russia.
India has been a big buyer of Russian weapons for 50 years. Those haven’t been easy years for New Delhi. India’s defense contracts with Russia have consistently suffered delays and cost overruns. And the resulting hardware doesn’t always work.