HF-24 Marut’s trajectory as independent India’s first indigenous jet fighter makes for a fascinating tale. The Marut aircraft programme epitomised a resource-strapped postcolonial India’s bet on mastering advanced technology to augment national security and buttress prestige. On the flip side, the limited utility of the aircraft in the service revealed the complexity inherent in such an undertaking. The ambitious but underperforming initiative, nevertheless, has a long afterlife among Indian defence indigenisation aficionados. Marut’s thriller story—involving German aeronautical expats with a Nazi past, the onset of postcolonial India’s defence–industrial complex, diplomatic tussles at the peak of the Cold War, and technological collaborations among Third World countries—merits recounting on its own. But, as we discuss later, the Marut programme also offers relevant lessons for India’s current defence indigenisation predicament in terms of the self-reliance imperative, the transnational circulation of technological expertise, technological and managerial roadblocks, and strategic calculations in diplomatic dealings.