Starting this year, we’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday at the joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi while also offering America’s most advanced military platform, the F-35 fifth generation fighter jet, to India. However, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri later pointed out that there is a process to be followed for military procurements and that the formal process in this regard hasn’t started “as yet”. Defence cooperation formed a major chunk of the joint statement, with new initiatives announced - U.S.-India TRUST (“Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology”), Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology for the 21st Century (COMPACT) and the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA).
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In a significant move that will liberalise the regulatory framework for India, U.S. and India announced that they will review their respective arms transfer regulations, including International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), in order to “streamline defence trade, technology exchange and maintenance, spare supplies and in-country repair and overhaul of U.S.-provided defence systems” and also begin negotiations this year for a Reciprocal Defence Procurement (RDP) agreement to “better align their procurement systems and enable the reciprocal supply of defence goods and services.”
“We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” Mr. Trump said. The leaders pledged to accelerate defence technology cooperation across space, air defence, missile, maritime and undersea technologies, with the U.S. announcing a review of its policy on releasing fifth generation fighters and undersea systems to India, the joint statement issued after the talks said.
In his remarks, Mr. Modi said America has an important role in India’s defence preparedness. “As strategic and trusted partners, we are actively moving in the direction of joint development, joint production and transfer of technology,” he said. “In the coming time, new technology and equipment will increase our capability. We have decided to launch the ASIA.”
Mr. Modi further added that the Defence Cooperation Framework will be created for the next decade and defence inter-operability, logistics, repair and maintenance will also be its main parts.
An official in the know termed the U.S. commitment to relax ITAR for India, and to commence discussions on RDP agreement as “very significant.” “This shall enable Indian companies to bid for US Department of Defence tenders, and release high technology items to India - in aerospace, Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) and missiles,” the official added.
In addition, the leaders determined that the U.S. would expand defence sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defence industrial cooperation. In this regard, they announced plans to pursue, this year, new procurements and co-production arrangements for ‘Javelin’ Anti-Tank Guided Missiles and ‘Stryker’ Infantry Combat Vehicles in India, the statement said. “They also expect completion of procurement for six additional P-8I Maritime Patrol aircraft to enhance India’s maritime surveillance reach in the Indian Ocean Region following agreement on sale terms,” it stated. The Hindu reported few days back that India was reviving the proposal for six P-8Is to add to the existing 12 in service.
Briefing the media after the talks, Mr. Misri, to questions on possible F-35 procurement by India noted that there is a process by which platforms are acquired and, in most cases, a request for proposal is floated, and there are responses to those that are evaluated. “I don’t think with regard to the acquisition of an advanced aviation platform by India, that process has started as yet. So this is currently something that’s at the stage of a proposal. But I don’t think the formal process in this regard has started as yet.”
While new procurements were announced, the statement made no mention of the co-production of the General Electric F-414 jet engines for India’s Light Combat Aircraft-MK2 for which commercial negotiations are currently underway between GE and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Last week, HAL Chairman and Managing Director D. K. Sunil said that were making progress. The first step is to get the ToT (Transfer of Technology) clarity, and then the aspect of pricing, he said at Aero India. Stating that the first step is 80% ToT, he said all queries have been sent and a GE team will be in Indian by month end with the answers.
An important aspect at a multilateral level among the Quad grouping is the mention that ahead of the Quad summit to be hosted by India later this year, the statement said, the leaders will activate new Quad initiatives on “shared airlift capacity to support civilian response to natural disasters and maritime patrols to improve interoperability.”
In a related development, the leaders committed to “break new ground” to “support and sustain” the overseas deployments of the U.S. and Indian militaries in the Indo-Pacific, including enhanced logistics and intelligence sharing, as well as arrangements to improve force mobility for joint humanitarian and disaster relief operations along with other exchanges and security cooperation engagements, the statement added.
The earlier initiative for Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), an ambitious effort of the Biden administration, for high-end technology cooperation with India finds no mention and the TRUST initiative looks like the iCET in a new avatar. However, clarity is awaited on this aspect.
hinterstoisser on February 14th, 2025 at 07:52 UTC »
The cost of the F35 alone is not the only factor to be considered- to make them communicate across the system , the overall cost could be another $0.5-2$ for every $$ spent on the flight itself.
But considering the aging of her squadrons, either the f35 or getting in a joint development with the Europeans on a 5th/6th generational fighter is imperative.
SolRon25 on February 14th, 2025 at 05:09 UTC »
India should probably go with something similar to what the Israelis have done, I.e, adding their own modifications to the F-35 to carry domestic weapons. Using the conventional F-35a as the base, India could then modify it to an F-35i version, just like how they created the P-8i Neptune distinct from the P-8a Poseidon that America uses.
Mundane-Laugh8562 on February 14th, 2025 at 04:54 UTC »
Given China's soaring production rates for the J-20 along with the impending introduction of the J-35 in both the PLAAF and PAF, this is a smart move for both the US and India. Having the world's 4th largest air force, India has the potential to become the largest F-35 operator outside the US. This'll put more pressure on China to split equipment and manpower between both the theatres.