India approves $22 billion military upgrade amid China border tensions

The planned purchases include long-range kamikaze drones, surveillance and strike systems, counter-drone technologies, short-range air defence, artillery, helicopters and naval platforms.

India’s military policy reflects its longstanding conflict with Pakistan and an increasing perception of China as a threat, Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told CNBC. Pakistan received 61% of Chinese arms exports between 2021 and 2025, according to a SIPRI report published earlier this year.

Shatrujeet Singh Kapoor, director general of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, urged modernisation of defence equipment. “It will be difficult to compete with China using traditional methods,” he said.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday that “the situation in the India-China border areas gets disturbed from time to time when Chinese forces diverge from established patrolling patterns.” Beijing responded that it “strictly abides by the relevant agreements and common understandings reached between the two countries.”

The latest approval forms part of a wider procurement push. Since April, India has authorised military spending totalling 3.7 trillion rupees, Citi said in a report on Tuesday. That is already more than half the 6.73 trillion rupees approved in the financial year ended March 2026, a 10-year high.

New Delhi has said it plans to procure 82% of its defence equipment from local industries. However, foreign companies are likely to play a key role in providing technology crucial for military modernisation.

Arpit Chaturvedi, South Asia adviser at Teneo, said India relies on imported technologies for specialised components such as aircraft engines, propulsion systems, sensors and electronic subsystems. He expects American, Israeli and Russian manufacturers to find opportunities through joint ventures, co-production and technology partnerships with Indian companies.

Wezeman said the latest purchases would involve South Korean components and technology for artillery, French engines and avionics for helicopters, and drones from the United States and Israel. Collaboration with Russia and Japan could also be possible, he said.

India was the world’s second-largest importer of major arms in 2021–25, accounting for 8.2% of global imports, according to SIPRI. It was also the fifth-largest military spender at $92 billion, although that amounted to less than 30% of China’s military expenditure, Wezeman noted.

Collin Koh Swee Lean, a senior fellow at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said India faces practical challenges in matching China’s modernisation scale. But conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have demonstrated how mass-produced systems such as drones can help address military imbalances, he said.