There’s a phrase that gets used a lot in military strategy — “fighting with what you have, not what you wish you had.” Ukraine is living that reality right now in the most literal sense possible.
Reports have confirmed that Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets are now deploying the R-60 air-to-air missile against Russian drone threats. Let that sink in for a moment. The R-60 was already considered a museum piece when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. We’re talking about Soviet-era technology from the 1970s — a weapon older than most of the pilots flying these missions. And yet, here it is, back in active service over Ukrainian skies.
The reason is straightforward and brutal. Ukraine is running out of modern interceptor munitions. Western supply chains, despite the political goodwill, have not kept pace with the sheer volume of Russian drone and missile attacks. Moscow has figured out something clever — flood the battlefield with cheap Shahed drones and force Ukraine to burn through expensive, sophisticated air defence assets. It’s economic warfare wrapped inside kinetic warfare, and it’s working.
The implications of this go well beyond Ukraine. What we’re watching is a live demonstration of what prolonged high-intensity conflict does to even a well-supplied modern military. The shelf life of a nation’s arsenal under sustained pressure is far shorter than most war planners like to admit. NATO members watching this closely should be asking serious questions about their own stockpile readiness — because what’s happening in Ukraine isn’t a special case. It’s a warning.
For India, this story carries particular weight. India operates one of the most complex and diverse military inventories in the world, with equipment sourced from Russia, the West, and increasingly from domestic producers. The Ukraine conflict has already disrupted spare parts and ammunition supply chains for Indian systems with Russian origins. But the deeper lesson here is about self-sufficiency. India’s push under ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ to develop indigenous defence production isn’t just economic nationalism — it’s genuine strategic necessity. A country that depends on external suppliers during peacetime is a country that may find those shelves empty when things turn serious. Ukraine’s R-60 moment should sharpen New Delhi’s focus on that front considerably.
There’s also the intelligence value. India’s own MiG-29 fleet, still operational with the Air Force and Navy, gives Indian defence planners a unique window into how these platforms are performing under real combat stress in 2024. That kind of operational data is priceless.
My take: Ukraine reaching for 1970s missiles isn’t just a logistics story — it’s a geopolitical alarm bell. It exposes the gap between political promises and actual warfighting capacity, and it challenges every major power to honestly assess whether their defence industrial base can sustain a prolonged conflict. For India specifically, this is further proof that the race toward genuine defence self-reliance isn’t optional. It’s existential. The time to build that capacity is before the crisis, not during it.
Analysis by Rajesh Pillai | RP Speaks | Based on news from: Missile Shortage Forces Ukraine To Use 1970s-Era R-60 Against Russian Drones
