Eye on big submarine deal, how Germany lifted ban on small arms sales to India
German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party-led government has agreed to lift restrictions on selling small arms to India. It means Indian military and state police forces can buy German arms off the shelf, like NATO countries. Observers feel Berlin’s move is targeted at getting big contracts vis a vis India’s planned line of advanced submarines. A German company has emerged as a strong contender for the deal.
Germany could be drawing inspiration from France’s success in the Indian military market. With France becoming a significant supplier of military ware to India and a competitor to Russia, Germany sees an opportunity to expand its presence too. India’s diverse range of arms imports suggests there’s room for Germany to create its own space.
Germany, the fifth-largest exporter of arms and defence equipment to India, lags way behind in terms of the quantum of military sales to India. While it has been focused on the EU, India relied heavily on Russia, France, US and Israel for its military needs.
Germany’s Christian Democratic Union government, headed by former chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2021, had prevented the sale of small arms to Indian police forces over perceptions of dubious human rights records. The change in policy allows Indian security forces to procure items such as the MP5 submachine gun, manufactured by German firm Heckler & Koch. These guns are currently being used by India’s elite National Security Guard, commonly known as ‘Black Cats’, and the Indian Navy’s MARCOS commandos.
In 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany initiated a dramatic shift in its foreign policy and defence oriÂentation (often referred to as the Zeitenwende speech) when chancellor Scholz announced a massive increase to defence spending.
Earlier this year, Germany moved forward with its proposal to participate in the Indian Navy’s Rs 43,000 crore Project-75 (India) to build six conventional submarines armed with better sensors and weapons and an air-independent propulsion system. During his visit to India in January, German defence minister Boris Pistorius pitched for building the six advanced submarines in India under the government’s strategic partnership model. Pistorius also visited Indian defence PSU Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL) in Mumbai, where German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) and MDL signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on building six stealth submarines here in India under Project-75 (I).
As per the ‘non-binding and non-financial’ MoU, TKMS will contribute to the engineering and design of the submarines as well as provide consultancy support. MDL, in turn, will take responsibility for constructing and delivering the submarines.
India had sourced four submarines from Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) of Germany in the late 1980s. Two of these were built at MDL in 1992 and 1994, respectively, and the other two came from Germany. The HDW has since been taken over by TKMS.
Besides the current moves, military cooperation between India and Germany is also at its peak as 32 German Air Force aircraft, including 12 Tornado jets, eight Eurofighters, Airbus 300 mid-air refuelling tankers and Airbus 400M military transport planes, will be participating in India’s largest-ever multinational military exercise ‘Tarang Shakti’ in Tamil Nadu in August.
Then, in October, German frigate Baden-Württemberg and combat support ship Frankfurt am Main will be making a port visit to Goa.
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