India, US seal defence cooperation road map

India and the United States on Monday announced the conclusion of a new road map for future defence industrial cooperation with the goal of fast-tracking 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, in a renewed push for deepening collaboration in the sector during delegation-level talks between defence minister Rajnath Singh and his American counterpart Lloyd J Austin.

- Rahul Singh

NEW DELHI: In separate statements, the two sides highlighted what the new road map seeks to achieve.

"This initiative aims to change the paradigm for cooperation between US and Indian defense sectors, including a set of specific proposals that could provide India access to cutting-edge technologies and support India's defense modernization  plans," the US Department of Defense (DoD) said in a statement.

Both sides will identify opportunities for co-development of new technologies and co-production of existing and new systems and facilitate increased collaboration between defence their startups, the Indian defence ministry said after the talks.

The talks covered a raft of areas including manufacturing GE-414 fighter jet engines in the country through transfer of technology, buying hi-tech drones from the US for the Indian military, the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh where India has been locked in a border row with China for over three years, and a free and rules-bound Indo-Pacific region where China is pushing for greater influence, Indian officials tracking the dialogue said, asking not to be named.

The deal to build GE-414 engines in India is set to be announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US from June 21 to June 24, said one of the officials cited above. The engine will power the light combat aircraft (LCA) Mk-2 and other indigenous fighters that India plans to develop including the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) and the twin-engine deck-based fighter (TEDBF).