While presenting the Union Budget 2017-18 on February 01, 2017, the Finance Minister (FM), Arun Jaitley, allocated Rs. 3,59,854 crore (US$ 53.5 billion) to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). As in his previous budget, the FM also made certain changes in the format of the defence Demand for Grants (under which defence money is distributed among the armed forces and other defence agencies), bringing further complexity to the task of estimating the various heads that make up India’s official defence budget.

India top defence suppliers in the world so far are USA, Russia, Israel, France and the UK.

Now, a muscular new player, South Korea, is storming this top 5 club. On Friday, in New Delhi, the governments of India and the Republic of Korea (or RoK, as South Korea) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for joint shipbuilding, which clears the decks for cooperatively building five fleet support ships (FSS) for about Rs 10,000 crore.

These FSS will replenish ammunition, fuel, food and supplies to navy flotillas.

In another development South Korean firm Hanwha Techwin (HTW) on Friday signed a contract of 750 million US$ ( 4800 crores Rupees) for execution of the 155mm/ 52 Cal Tracked Self Propelled (SP) Gun programme for the Indian Army.

The K9 VAJRA-T gun is an enhanced version of HTW’s K9 Thunder, to suit specific requirements of the Indian Army including desert operations.

HTW’s K9 Thunder is one of the self-propelled howitzers in the world with over 1,000 numbers already in service in Korea. L&T’s Jayant Patil, head of defence and aerospace and member of heavy engineering board said his company with be jointly executing supply of K9 VAJRA-T guns and also provide through life support at their plant in Talegaon near Pune in Maharashtra.

The emerging of ROK South korea as major supplier for Indian defence has not only raised eyebrows for International defence analysts but big arms suppling nations USA, Russia, Israel, France and UK are watching Indian BJP government Purchases keenly .