Here’s how India’s arms trade has changed over the last 15 years

India's arms imports from the US have increased

India has secured arms worth nearly $15 billion from the US over the past seven years, according to Foreign Military Sales (FMS) notifications data compiled by Forum Arms Trade.

This includes the recently inked $2.99 billion deal to procure 31 Predator drones, which was notified in February 2024.

A Moneycontrol analysis shows that the Biden and Trump administrations have contributed equally to arms exports to India. During the Trump years, the US issued a notification for MH-60R Seahawk helicopters worth $2.42 billion.

The move comes amid rising arms imports to India, which, from 2019 to 23, became the largest arms importer worldwide, displacing Saudi Arabia as the largest importer.

India's share of global arms imports increased to 9.8 percent between 2019 and 23, compared with 9.1 percent in 2014-18.

There has also been a pivot in alliances with France and the United States, but Russia still accounts for the largest share of imports.

In 2019-23, the share of Russia’s imports to India was 36 percent compared with 58 percent in 2014-18 and 76 percent between 2009-13.

Meanwhile, France’s share in India’s imports rose from 0.9 percent in 2009-13 to 33 percent in 2019-23, largely due to the Rafale aircraft deal. US’s share during this period went up to 13 percent from 8%.

But the change is not restricted to just imports, as India is increasingly becoming a defence exporter.

India’s defence exports reached Rs 21,083 crore in FY24, rising 33 percent from the previous year.

“A comparative data of two decades i.e. the period from 2004-05 to 2013-14 and 2014-15 to 2023-24 reveals that there has been a growth of 21 times in the defence exports. Total defence exports during 2004-05 to 2013-14 were Rs 4,312 crore, which has gone up to Rs 88,319 crore in the period from 2014-15 to 2023-24,” the government had noted earlier this year in April.