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Indian military. File photoNEW DELHI, Apr 20Russian weapons are superior to Western ones in their simplicity, cost and reliability, military expert, retired Indian Army Major General P. K. Sehgal told RIA Novosti. «The fact is that our troops are used to Russian weapons systems. They are much cheaper than the equivalent option from the Western world. Russian weapons are much more reliable and do not fail at the last minute. Western weapons are too sophisticated and often let us down, and India has been confidently operating Russian weapons for the past six decades,» he said. According to the Stockholm International Institute Peace Research (SIPRI), India spent almost half of its defense budget from 2017 to 2021 on arms purchases from Russia. At the same time, this is less than from 2012 to 2016 — then up to 69 percent of the defense budget of this state was spent on weapons from the northern country. The most noticeable and expensive purchase was the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. The contract for their supply was signed in October 2018. As it became known earlier, five regimental kits will cost Delhi 5.43 billion dollars. India has become the third foreign buyer of these complexes after China and Turkey.Japan named Russian weapons that will determine the futureIn parallel with Russian technology, New Delhi is interested in weapons from France, the United States and Israel. France recently delivered 32 Dassault Rafale jet fighters, 15 Mirage combat aircraft and three Scorpene submarines to India. And the value of defense trade between India and the US has risen from $200 million in 2000 to $6.2 billion by 2019. Among the purchases are MQ-9A Reaper drones, P8-I Poseidon long-range maritime patrol aircraft and Sikorsky MH-60R multi-purpose helicopters. In early February of this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the problem with importing weapons is that they are becoming obsolete by the time he enters the army. He believes that the solution to this issue will be the programs «Self-reliant India» and «Made in India», aimed at developing production in the country itself. In the United States spoke about the «anomalous» Russian weapons