NEW DELHI: India and the US have decided to push ahead with their discussions on joint development and production of futuristic military systems, ahead of the first “two-plus-two” dialogue between defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and foreign minister
Sushma Swaraj with their American counterparts, Jim Mattis and
Mike Pompeo, to be held here in early-November.
This emerged during the 7th meeting of the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), co-chaired by defence production secretary Ajay Kumar and his American counterpart, undersecretary of defence for acquisition and sustainment Ellen M Lord, here on Wednesday.
The earlier projects proposed by the US under the DTTI were quite modest in nature despite India looking for “unique and transformative military technologies” to give its armed forces a decisive edge over its rivals.
Since then, the US has offered India a tri-lateral venture with Israel to develop futuristic
infantry combat vehicles, as also participation in its “future vertical-lift (FVL) aircraft” programme for five different helicopters under the DTTI, as was first reported by TOI.
Lord, on her part, on Wednesday said Washington expected the defence relationship between the two countries to “be further strengthened” after the US designated India as a “Major Defence Partner”. “DTTI is an important forum leading to the two-plus-two dialogue,” she said.
An Indian official said the different joint working groups established under the DTTI had made considerable progress in their discussions. “The JWG under the Air Force handling the surveillance platform has made considerable progress. The Indian Navy JWG is constructively engaged with US Navy for aircraft carrier technology cooperation for the ongoing program,” he said.
“On the land systems front and on projects under the DRDO, both sides have identified projects where scope of co-production/co-development of systems exists. “The DTTI meeting has great significance for defence cooperation in trade and technology,” he added.
Already among the top arms suppliers to India with sales worth $15 billion over the last decade, the US remains eager to grab more lucrative defence deals and joint co-development projects in the lucrative Indian market.
India, however, remains miffed with the US for its new law called CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act), which seeks to deter countries from buying Russian weapon systems.
Dismissing CAATSA as “a US law and not a UN law” last week, Sitharaman had declared that India will go ahead with its Rs 39,000 crore acquisition of five advanced S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems from Russia despite pressure from the US.
TOI was the first to report in October 2015 that India had kicked off plans to acquire the S-400 missile systems, which can detect, track and destroy hostile strategic bombers, stealth fighters, spy planes, missiles and drones at a range of up to 400-km and altitude of 30-km
