India likely to hike defence budget
India is expected to sharply hike its defence spending in today's budget, despite peace talks with rival Pakistan, as it goes on a shopping spree for new military hardware to update its ageing arsenal, analysts say.
India, one of the world's biggest arms buyers with one million-plus troops, is looking to buy 126 new jet fighters to replace an accident-prone fleet of Russian-built MiGs, six new submarines from France, an anti-missile system from the United States and rocket launchers from Russia.
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