India's tortuous progress towards the planned commissioning of their new aircraft carrier, the Vikrant, sometime next month serves as a good example of why I stopped following Indian military developments years ago and also why Indian manufacturing is just so uncompetitive. This
ship began actual hull construction at the beginning of 2009 and won't be finished until towards the end of 2022, a near 14 year construction period. That has probably set some records in how long you can drag out naval construction. The issue isn't just with the Vikrant but with
every domestic Indian military development program and even most foreign acquisitions. Over promise, under deliver... eventually. I mean the Astra program to deliver a domestic medium range air to air active radar homing was started back in 1999 and still hasn't been delivered in
operational terms nearly a quarter of a century later is another good example. It's not just timelines being entirely provisional that is the issue but they aren't anyway near the ballpark that is the problem. If an Indian tells you yes, in the future he really means no, never.
If he says 10 years, he means check back after the birth of your first grandson. 5 years means maybe check back in 15. 2 years really means 5, as does 1. A few months is actually a few years. Next month is actually half a year out. Next week means month and if you are given a
a specific day then make sure the dates a week after that are empty as well. This kind of operational speed may be acceptable in government work but in private industry, anyone who isn't interested in wasting money is just going to go elsewhere when looking for a supplier and the
delays don't mean you are getting something groundbreaking and fully developed but rather something that is mediocre and half obsolete given how long its development usually drags out to. After a while after hearing the latest bold pronouncement of "India will" you learn to tune
all of it out and ignore it with an eye roll because of having been continuously burned everywhere else.
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