India asks US to stand guarantee for transfer of tech

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 6

India has asked the US to stand guarantee for transfer of technology (TOT) if any US-based companies are to bid under ‘Make in India’ for the fighter jet programme.

This was part of the talks held between the defence policy group of the two countries yesterday and today in the run up to the meeting between Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his US counterpart Ashton Carter. The two leaders will meet for delegation-level talks on April 12 in New Delhi. Carter arrives in Goa on April 10.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin have submitted proposals to have a ‘Make in India’ for fighter jets. New Delhi is looking for additional fighter jets once it signs the Rafale fighter jet deal with Dassualt Aviation of France.

Sources confirmed that Swedish company Saab, that makes the Gripen jet, has committed to TOT and so have the French for their jet. In the past, TOT has been major issue as India has refused sign on three separate agreements which the US terms as ‘foundational agreements’.

Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on March 4 made it public that the government was planning to start a ‘second assembly line’ of fighter planes under the Make in India project. The first being the locally-made Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), the Tejas.

The US is also keen that the much-talked-about Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) can progress unhindered once India signs the ‘foundational agreements’.

The agreements are: Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA), Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA) and the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA).

Of these the LSA – an agreement to share military logistics use each other's land, air and naval bases for resupplies, repair and rest – is in advanced stages of talks. India has asked the US to make it India specific not the standard LSA which the US has with its allies like the UK. “Some gaps have been closed at the meetings,” said sources, while adding that New Delhi fears the LSA could a binding commitment to support the United States in a war.