In what would be his fourth trip to India in the run-up to President Barack Obama’s visit, top Pentagon official Frank Kendall will be holding further negotiations with senior Indian officials in the hope of finalising some key defence deals.
Besides signing a new 10-year defence framework agreement between the two countries, both sides are looking to announce some important deals under the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative.
Kendall, who will be visiting New Delhi next week, will hold discussions with Defence Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur, Secretary for Defence Production G. Mohan Kumar and Avinash Chander, the outgoing Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister.
“His primary objective is to continue momentum on the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), which promotes collaboration on defence technology and enables co-production and co-development of critical defence systems,” according to Kendall’s spokeswoman Maureen Schumann.
Citing industry sources, Reuters reported that Kendall aims to finalise two pilot projects, one involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the other involving systems for the C-130 military transport aircraft built by lockheed Martin Corp. The drone project is said to involve the RQ-11 “Raven” built by AeroVironment Inc, a small US firm.