U.S. defense sales to India have greatly increased over the past decade, with more than $30 billion still to come in military acquisition, according to a State Department official.
“They have about $35 billion in acquisition that they’ll be making over the next several years,” Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast yesterday.
Earlier this month, Boeing [BA] and Lockheed Martin [LMT] saw their bids—for the F/A-18 and F-16, respectively—eliminated from India’s medium multi-role combat aircraft (Defense Daily, May 2).
Blake said the technical reasons behind the decisions have yet to be discussed in debriefings.
“From our perspective licensing was not an issue,” Blake said. “We were prepared to license some of our most advanced technologies, things like the AESA radar.”
However, “American companies are well positioned to compete,” for future procurement dollars, he said, citing successful business over the past several years. Those successes include sales of the C-130J, C-17, and a variety of other platforms. Lockheed Martin produces the C-130J, and Boeing the C-17 aircraft.
Among the reasons for India’s military spending is a concern about China, he said. This is not necessarily a concern about a specific weapon system, but the purpose behind the Chinese military buildup and future intent, he said.
Meanwhile, trade between India and China has been rapidly developing, which is an incentive for the two countries to try and resolve issues.
Also, India is sometimes concerned with military equipment the United States is selling to Pakistan, particularly if it could be used against it, such as F-16s, Blake said.
But after the deadly raid on Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, India sees it as helpful that the United States continues to be engaged with Pakistan since there are other difficult issues–for example, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) terrorist group, responsible for the 2008 attacks on Mumbai, is based in Pakistan.
There’s a need for Pakistan to take the LET threat seriously, Blake said. A scenario with another LET attack on India as deadly as on Mumbai could result in strong pressure on the Indian government to respond, perhaps militarily. Such a scenario also could become a problem for the United States for example, if Pakistan redeployed troops away from its border with Afghanistan and its anti-terror efforts there.