Indian Army Favors American Stryker Over Indigenous WhAP 8×8 in Armored Vehicle Program

The Indian Army's evaluation of contenders for its 8×8 wheeled armored vehicle program has reportedly hit a roadblock, with sources suggesting a preference for the American Stryker over local offerings, including DRDO's WhAP 8×8. The Army reportedly considers the Stryker a more robust and mature platform compared to indigenous alternatives, citing superior design and protection.

This development contradicts DRDO's claims, which previously positioned their WhAP 8×8 as superior to the Stryker, Fuchs 2, and Piranha 3 based on a comparison chart. However, the Army's assessment seems to prioritize real-world performance over theoretical specifications.

In response to the Army's preference, discussions are underway between the US and India to explore a co-development program for a customized Stryker M1135 variant tailored to meet Indian requirements.

This setback for DRDO's WhAP 8×8 could potentially hinder India's efforts toward self-reliance in defense manufacturing. While the WhAP may have shown theoretical advantages, the Army's practical assessment highlights the importance of proven performance in the field.

The future of India's 8×8 program remains uncertain, with the final decision likely to have a significant impact on both the Army's capabilities and the country's pursuit of indigenous defense solutions.

 

[M S Chatterji]

On the other hand, DRDO needs to be changed. Whatever they touch fails.

Fails or forced to fail in half the cases.

 

[Vaishak Upadhyaya]

it's almost outperformed by the WHAPs in almost any aspect....then qhy is it preferred?

 

[ramdas]

Recognizing and appreciating the value of a product is important. It's essential to carefully evaluate a product regardless of its origin. Blindly accepting something just because it's locally made can be risky, especially in critical situations like warfare. If DRDO wants to enhance WHAP, they could consider taking inspiration from the stryker. However, the issue of intellectual property rights might hinder this. If the US is willing to provide full technology transfer, it would eliminate the risk of them backing out during crucial times.

 

[Vijayan John]

Indian Army prefers imported equipment! What a surprise. The Army needs to be firmly told that imports are not an option when local product is available. In case of war, imported equipment will become our Achilles heel. If the US decides not to supply spares, the equipment will be useless, no matter how much better it is than the local variant. It is a matter of concern that even decades after independence, we are still dependent on imports for our defense. I also suspect that the army's preference for imported equipment is only partly due to superior performance and mainly due to kick backs for the people who are in charge of procurement.

 

[bayern munich]

As usual Failed DRDO designs

hey you shut the heck up , you are just such an irritating piece man like whenever there will be articles praising drdo you wont be there but we will always see you bootlicking these articles lmaoo
you are the worst guy here fr
and yess hes correct army always favour import

 

[Jayhome]

Er.. So, the Indian army insists on having Strykers that have been exposed THOROUGHLY in Ukraine by Russian ground forces... Why didn't they consider Russian AFVs that have better armour, power, ruggedness, maintenance downtime & are cheaper...?? Why- because... Strategic arms purchase. Need to keep the West happy....

LOL FAKE NEWS Rao
A simple search on Google for the terms "Ukraine Stryker vehicles" (which are the older ones the US sent) shows them doing exceptionally well

 

[Franklin D'souza]

It is better to not develop locally anything for the import army as the Indian navy is much better in terms of using everything locally or providing the right feedback in terms of improving the product. Import army should be starved of funds as in the T-72 on the border areas have no protection against drones. I am not sure if the import army is looking to sacrifice more Indian lives. I am thoroughly unhappy with the import army and wish the Indian army would look more inwards to improve tactics and strategies.

 

[Akshat]

hey you shut the heck up , you are just such an irritating piece man like whenever there will be articles praising drdo you wont be there but we will always see you bootlicking these articles lmaoo
you are the worst guy here fr
and yess hes correct army always favour import

Can you name 5 DRDO products inducted into the armed forces on time and on budget? What is there to praise when DRDO has never ever done anything praiseworthy? Armed forces are begging for desi maal but these DRDo scientists are filing fake reports even to MoD. CAG has said that on record.

 

[Akshat]

Fails or forced to fail in half the cases.

Has anyone in the world inducted Tapas? Arjun? WhAP? They are lying to even the MoD. That’s on record. They are utter failures.

 

[Akshat]

He was speaking of import army brass.

I am speaking the truth of the corrupt South Block DRDO brass.

 

[Akshat]

That's why CRPF is happy with them while using in kashmir!!
they are ready to procure more!!
but as usual foreign love and corruption at high level!!

Requirements are diffeeent. And has anyone outside India purchased them who isn’t under GoI’s strict control?

We all remember how Insas was forced on CRPF and their DG was forced to come out with raw data on how that gun was an utter piece of junk.

 

[Akshat]

Ohh it's same goes with the army they are heavily paid so they procured foreign items at a high cost!!!!

Lot of corruption in procurement!!

On the other hand, they pay far more for items made by DPSUs. Tejas rivals F35 in procurement cost.

 

[Akshat]

Only on paper man only on paper. The comparitive trials should have been done in Indian conditions.

If WhAP simply doesn’t meet the requirements even on paper, what is there to test? We just need to confirm that Striker meets them. If that is the case then automatically Striker beats WhAP.

 

[Akshat]

There was no actual pitting of different vehicles against each other. So I do smell corruption from the import army. Import army's decision a big setback to indigenous product. If import army had given the requirements before hand the indigneous products would have been more aligned. What can one say, like the GOI forced Tejasmk1 on IAF, the same should be done on the top brass of import army.

They gave the requirements for ATAGs, what happened? DRDO is the most corrupt of them all.

As for Mk1a, they forced it on IAF. We all are seeing how it is failing in competitions around the world. No one wants to buy it, which shows how bad a plane our IAF is being forced to fly. I feel ashamed that we can’t even give the best weapons to our soldiers who are putting their lives in line just because the ego of an organization called DRDO has to be satisfied first.

 

[Amit]

Army always loves foreign mall..Chandigarh gang is good in spreading articles demeaning home grown products. Navy is way better than army..top army brass are corrupt...a through evaluation must happen and DRDO/TATA/Mahindra must work to fix any issues...we must support local production.

 

[Indian arms]

Recognizing and appreciating the value of a product is important. It's essential to carefully evaluate a product regardless of its origin. Blindly accepting something just because it's locally made can be risky, especially in critical situations like warfare. If DRDO wants to enhance WHAP, they could consider taking inspiration from the stryker. However, the issue of intellectual property rights might hinder this. If the US is willing to provide full technology transfer, it would eliminate the risk of them backing out during crucial times.

For a country as large and populous as India it is very important to make the defence products locally using the local talent. In addition to the technical expertise development , it enables economic development through job creation. Local product can be improved over a period of time to satisfy the then requirements of the user. It will be a matter of national prestige also. Indian army should be prohibited from using the foreign equipment.

 

[AK S]

Fails or forced to fail in half the cases.

Forgive him. He is a Frenchie and hates anything and everything indigenous. He promotes French and Israeli products by showing DRDO, HAL and other competition in bad light and not by showing the marginal value and its cost to us. He is a fan of Mirage upgrade, ATHOS, Spike and what not.

 

[wallisk]

it's almost outperformed by the WHAPs in almost any aspect....then qhy is it preferred?

show the proof....

 

[AK S]

Has anyone in the world inducted Tapas? Arjun? WhAP? They are lying to even the MoD. That’s on record. They are utter failures.

At least run a trial to know the real picture. Results are pronounced without any test of Stryker in Indian terrain.

I can see you know everything!

For records, Tapas fares better than Israeli Drishti.

 

[Bharat007]

Er.. So, the Indian army insists on having Strykers that have been exposed THOROUGHLY in Ukraine by Russian ground forces... Why didn't they consider Russian AFVs that have better armour, power, ruggedness, maintenance downtime & are cheaper...?? Why- because... Strategic arms purchase. Need to keep the West happy....

US is sending less sophisticated equipments into battlefields of Ukraine fearing it would fall into enemy's hand. Moreover, Tanks or APCs irrespective of sophistication can't escape from modern day weapons. Even the best tanks like T90 and Leopards have been damaged and captured here. Nothing is immune.

 

[Bhaskar Ambekar]

Nothing new Army always want Phoren maal, they need to learn from Indian navy who gives first preference to indigenous products

 

[Puneet]

Army's practical assessment; that we saw when they asked for a rifle with interchangeable barrels for firing different bores.

 

[Anurag]

Requirements are diffeeent. And has anyone outside India purchased them who isn’t under GoI’s strict control?

We all remember how Insas was forced on CRPF and their DG was forced to come out with raw data on how that gun was an utter piece of junk.

How requirements are different??
is their any evaluation done on the grounds??
so just few things to ask here Stryker's have done any field test here in India?
just Indian system have to go throw a lot moon trial sea trial and space trials!!
but foreign item they are just best... Earlier it was with Russian systems and now with western system that are outdated now!!
so corruption is everywhere

 

[beencensured]

Does that mean terrorist drive stryker ?? Tell this to Singh, Gadkari, Shah.

I favour capability that is missing in WhAP.

Whap is amphibious and Stryker is not. Stryker American and Canadian toilet meant to keep India ten steps backward and dependent at double the cost. Like Tejas ge404 failing when Argentina deal was made serendipitously with America. So such terrorist Canadian /America will fail at opportune time. Best act like a superpower and Our WHAP is best, Advertise the Indian brand. ANGLO five eyes are totally undependable liar and cheats. .

 

[beencensured]

Does that mean terrorist drive stryker ?? Tell this to Singh, Gadkari, Shah.

I favour capability that is missing in WhAP.

Whap is amphibious and Stryker is not. Stryker American and Canadian toilet meant to keep India ten steps backward and dependent at double the cost. Like Tejas ge404 failing when Argentina deal was made serendipitously with America. So such terrorist Canadian /America will fail at opportune time. Best act like a superpower and Our WHAP is best, Advertise the Indian brand. ANGLO five eyes are totally undependable liar and cheats.

 

[Anurag]

On the other hand, they pay far more for items made by DPSUs. Tejas rivals F35 in procurement cost.

I always thought highly of you as you come with something that is interesting to listen but are you sure what you just said??
total cost spend on f-35 program you really know???
I can't even think of near future that India will ever afford to spend this much of amount!!!
still plague by many problems many plane crashed!!!(At first their is no comparison between Tejas and f35)
Army's corruption is seen as we lose soldiers on the ground but still we can't procure the equipment for them to survive on the battlefield!! We need more armoured vehicles in areas like kashmir valley and in the eastern terrain but still army chose to lose life's over these things!! For them soldiers lyf is not matter they will continue to use old and absolute system.
just took recent example of T-72 tank accident we lost 5 brave soldiers!!
If their is no corruption then why these accident or attack happens??
look at the stats how many soldiers we lost in kashmir valley alone every year because of lack of essential terrain items which our army lacks from many decades!!

 

[SK]

For long term approach, it's more sensible to invest in WhAP.

 

[Akshat]

The problem is not the products but Army mindset.

Army mindset is amazing. Trying to help our industry to the fullest. The sole problem is the developer DRDO.

 

[kumar]

IA should be starved of the funds. ADB should be disbanded. And army funds including emergency procurement funds should be given to companies as compensation for thier investment in whap, and the likes of Kalyani and sss defence, etc. Let chandigarh lobby finance thier own acquisition.

 

[Sandeep]

What shocks me is that people think that India has already made a deal for the Stryker IFV from the USA which isn’t true. India has just said that we will look at the technology, capabilities and price of what the USA are offering. There is also an arms embargo in place which prevents India from buying the Stryker IFV as we are capable of developing it ourselves which is why it’s banned along with reassuring private investors to invest in indigenous products. INDIA ISN'T GOING TO BUY THE STRYKER VEHICLE AT ALL!

Currently if someone was to look at the capabilities, technology and equipment then India and its WHAP/Kestrel beats all other foreign IFV. We also have the Mahindra and AVNL who are also developing their own IFV which will be just as good.

The only weakness in the Kestrel IFV is that India still needs to develop an unmanned indigenous integrated turret with a main canon gun, medium and heavy machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, ATGM launcher etc which can give a better performance. Currently we can temporarily use the turret of the BMP 2 IFV and keep using it until we develop an indigenous turret and replace it. This will keep production of the IFV on going and the vehicles won’t be delayed in manufacturing the parts, components and technology that has been developed so far which meets the service requirements.

Also we do want to see the Kestrel platform be used for other services like armoured ambulance, 120mm mortar, EW/ESM, command tracking vehicle, 105mm light tank, short range SAM, radars and tank killers etc so there is a long future for our indigenous Kestrel platform.