India interested in Stryker joint production with US

India is interested in a US offer for joint production of Stryker armoured vehicles to meet the needs of the army, defence secretary Giridhar Aramane said on Friday, adding that the proposed deals for the joint production of GE Aerospace's F414 engines in the country and the acquisition of next-generation armed drones from the US are on track.

- Rahul Singh

"An initial offer on the (Stryker) infantry combat vehicles has come from the US. We have expressed our interest in discussing it further to take the co-production part ahead," he said. His comments came during a joint media briefing with foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra on the 2+2 dialogue co-chaired by defence minister Rajnath Singh and external affairs minister S Jaishankar and their American counterparts Lloyd Austin and Antony Blinken.

Aramane said the discussions on the armoured vehicles were taking place under the roadmap for future defence industrial cooperation concluded by the two countries in June. The roadmap seeks to fast-track technology cooperation and co-production in critical areas such as air combat and land mobility systems; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; munitions, and the undersea domain. "Our industrial and military teams will work with their US counterparts and come up with a concrete plan in this regard...," he said.