Focus on co-production in defence

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 25

Taking the first baby step in joint production of military equipment, India and the US announced four products that can be manufactured in India. Both the sides renewed the India-US Defence Relationship Framework for ten more years beyond June 2015 while laying specific importance on expanding maritime cooperation.

The Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI) has been included in defence framework. The decisions were announced after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting US President Barack Obama here today. The four projects are not big ticket multi-billion dollar items, but will be ice-breakers and end apprehensions the US may have had over India in the past.

The first is for the hand-held Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) RQ-11, "Raven", the most widely used UAV for tactical surveillance. The second is the specialized surveillance and intelligence gathering equipment for the C-130-J transport planes. The Indian Air Force has five of these planes in its fleet and ordered six more. The intelligence gathering equipment is of the ‘roll-on roll-off’ variety indicating rapid deployment ability.

The third is Mobile Electric Hybrid Power Sources (MEHPS), which was evaluated in Afghanistan. The MEHPS is non-grid-tied smart power system with output ranging from 300W to 800KW. These will augment traditional generators on the battlefield. The fourth is the Uniform Integrated Protective Ensemble, a configured head-to-toe individual fighting system for land-based soldiers.

“The leaders expressed confidence that continued DTTI collaboration will yield additional joint projects in the near future,” a joint statement of the two sides said after the talks.

The key area to watch out will be the “efforts made by both countries to deepen cooperation in the field of maritime security” and the same has been reflected in the 2015 Framework for the US-India defence relationship.

“The navies of both sides would continue discussions to identify specific areas for expanding maritime cooperation. They also reiterated their commitment to upgrade their bilateral naval exercise MALABAR,” said the statement.

Another announcement is the setting up of a ‘working group’ to co-develop engines for fighter jets and jointly build an aircraft carrier.