India and the US will hold extensive discussions to enlarge the scope of Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI) for joint production of weapon systems in India during Under Secretary Frank Kendall’s visit to New Delhi in latter part of this month. He is in-charge of DTTI in Pentagon. India and the US had agreed to ink DTTI during President Barack Obama’s visit to New Delhi last month and Kendall was here then to lay the ground work for the pact.
The two sides will also finalise the modalities to sign the new ten-year Defence Framework Agreement as the old pact is will end in April. Then Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld had inked the first Agreement in 2005 to strengthen bilateral defence ties. It included sharing of defence technology and more joint exercises between the armed forces of two countries. During Obama’s visit, the two countries had agreed to renew the Framework Agreement.
Under the DTTI, which is part of overarching Framework Agreement, India and US agreed to work on four “pathfinder” projects. They included manufacturing Raven unmanned UAVs in India, roll on roll off kits for C-130 medium transport aircraft used by the IAF, mobile electric hybrid power source and uniform integrated protection ensemble. It was also agreed to set up a joint working group to explore possibilities to manufacture aircraft carrier and jet engines.
While US wants to participate in a big way in defence manufacturing sector under the ‘Make in India’ policy, India is keen to get hold of cutting edge technology as US is the world leader in this field. However, Washington, as of now, is not willing to do so and the Kendall and his Indian counterparts will try to find a way out to give momentum to DTTI, sources said here on Sunday. India is proceeding cautiously as it fears that the US may stop supplying technology midway as it had done in the past after Shakti series of nuclear tests in 1999.
Interestingly, despite these critical hurdles, the US has emerged as the biggest weapon supplier to India by bagging deals worth over ten billion dollars in the last few years. US had imposed sanctions on India in the wake of nuclear tests and the Indian defence sector suffered a major setback for some years.
These include 22 Apache attack helicopters worth over 1.5 billion dollars, 15 Chinook heavy-life helicopters worth over $1.1 and four more P-8 I long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft pegged at one billion dollars. India has already bought eight P-8Is costing $2.1 billion.
Kendall will also seek clarity on India’s Defence Procurement Procedure so that the US companies have a better idea of how to business here, they said. The Defence Minister had recently hinted that DPP will be modified to attract foreign vendors to India.