India is interested in furthering its partnership with both the U.S. military and defense industry to develop and manufacture high-end weapons on its own soil, Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar said Dec. 10.
Top priorities include development of an Indian produces jet aircraft engine and an aircraft carrier, both of which were discussed Thursday during a meeting with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.
“I conveyed to Secretary Carter our desire to further collaborate in the higher-end transformative technologies,” Parrikar said Thursday during a post-meeting press conference at the Pentagon.
“The U.S. and India share a strategic partnership that reflects our shared values and interests. Defense and security cooperation is a vital component of this partnership…Secretary Carter and I discussed a range of issues covering the entire spectrum of our defense partnership.”
India has struggled to produce jet engines domestically with little success. It purchases aircraft for its army and air force from other nations, including the United States, France and Russia. India has two aircraft carriers in service, but they are refurbished British and Russian vessels that are 50 and 25 years old, respectively. Another carrier–one of two in the planned ship class–is under construction in India. That program has suffered technical difficulties that have caused cost overruns and delays.
Parrikar and Carter earlier this year signed a document charting a course for a mutually supportive defense relationship over the next 10 years, including a tech-sharing agreement called the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). Carter in June traveled to India, becoming the first U.S. defense secretary to visit an operational Indian military command.
Carter said the DTTI “fosters technology cooperation, works to build industry-to-industry ties and identifies opportunities for the co-development and co-production of defense systems.” Specifically, Carter said he discussed with Parrikar progress on the cooperative development of an indigenous Indian jet engine manufacturing capability.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has liberalized India’s defense cooperation policies while pushing a “Make In India” agenda that encourages companies to invest in indigenous infrastructure and partner with Indian firms, Parrikar said. The shift has toppled barriers for U.S. defense contractors to do business in India.
“We feel the recent policy initiative have opened up immense opportunities for U.S. companies to set up their manufacturing and produce in Indian in collaboration with Indian companies,” he said. Companies like aerospace giant Boeing [BA] have taken advantage of the shift to establish a business foothold in India.
Boeing in November entered a joint venture with India’s Tata Advanced Systems to manufacture aerostructures for defense and commercial aircraft.
The venture followed closely a deal in late September between Boeing and India for 22 AH-64 Apache attack and CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift utility helicopters, making the country’s defense ministry a new customer for the two helicopters.
Parrikar became the first Indian defense minister to visit U.S. Pacific Command during a stopover in Hawaii on his way to Washington. He and Carter on Thursday flew to the USS Eisenhower (CVN-69) aircraft carrier to observe flight operations, another first for an Indian defense minister.
“This speaks not just to our important aircraft carrier technology cooperation, but to our expanding cooperation in maritime security as well,” Carter said. “The Indo-Asia- Pacific is one of the most consequential parts of the world for America’s future and we welcome India’s rise as a security partner in the region.”