India gives tepid response to Russian push for Su-57, long-range drones and submarines

Russia’s latest pitch to expand defence cooperation — including offers of the Su-57 fifth-generation stealth fighter, long-range drones and submarines — has met with a lukewarm response from India, officials familiar with the matter said.

A senior official said that in the run-up to President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to India, Moscow made repeated outreach promoting platforms such as the Geran series of kamikaze drones, submarines and aircraft.

“India didn’t show much interest in the equipment offered by Russia. The Russians were expecting major movement on the sidelines of the visit and are still pursuing the proposals. We are very much focusing on development of indigenous products,” the official said.

Despite high expectations, the much-watched defence announcements during Putin’s visit did not materialise. While 19 agreements aimed at boosting bilateral trade were signed, there was no breakthrough on collaboration involving the Su-57 or Russia’s S-500 air defence system.

The restrained response comes at a time when India is driving an aggressive push towards self-reliance in defence manufacturing.

On Sunday (December 7, 2025) in Leh, while dedicating 125 newly completed Border Roads Organisation (BRO) projects to the nation, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh underscored the transformation in domestic capacity.

Paradigm shift

He highlighted that India, once heavily dependent on arms imports, now boasts a record defence production value of ₹1.51 lakh crore, up from ₹46,000 crore in 2014. Defence exports have surged from under ₹1,000 crore to nearly ₹24,000 crore in a decade. It reflects a paradigm shift.

The Geran drones — Russia’s indigenised variant of Iran’s Shahed-136 kamikaze drone — have played a major role in Moscow’s low-cost attrition strategy in Ukraine, enabling mass salvo attacks. But Indian manufacturers and services have not shown interest in acquiring them.

Earlier, on October 29, the 23rd Working Group Meeting of the India–Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation was held in Moscow. Co-chaired by Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary (Defence Production), and Andrey A. Boytsov, First Deputy Director of Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), the discussions spanned tri-service cooperation and defence R&D.

The meeting concluded with the signing of a Protocol outlining fresh areas of collaboration and mutual growth — even as big-ticket defence deals remain elusive.