US President Joe Biden, left, and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, toast during a state dinner at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, June 22, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be heading back from his high-profile US trip this week with a host of new defense-related arrangements, including plans to buy MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones, a “groundbreaking proposal” to jointly produce General Electric’s F414 Jet Engine in India, and a new ship repair deal, the White House announced.
The trip was billed as the catalyst for rolling out new defense collaboration opportunities between the two nations, especially in the realm of technology sharing, even if some details of the initiatives remain scarce.
“The US-India partnership is a cornerstone of a free and open Indo-Pacific and our deepening bonds show how technological innovation and growing military cooperation between two great powers can be a force for global good,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Thursday.
Modi, too, referenced a “free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific” during his address to Congress Thursday, in what appeared to be a dig at Beijing’s increased aggression there.
An announcement about co-production of General Electric’s F414 jet engine in India was among the most high-profile items anticipated to come out of this week’s meetings, and the White House did in fact announce that GE and Hindustan Aeronautics inked a limited memorandum of understanding, and that Congress had been notified of a manufacturing license agreement.
“This trailblazing initiative to manufacture F-414 engines in India — the first of its kind — will enable greater transfer of US jet engine technology than ever before,” the White House said.
In a separate press release, GE said the agreement advances the company’s commitment to build 99 engines for the Indian Air Force as part of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk 2 program.
“It puts the company in a strong position to create a family of products in India, including the F404 engine that currently powers the LCA Mk1 and LCA Mk1A aircraft and GE Aerospace’s selection for the prototype development, testing and certification of the [Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft] AMCA program with our F414-INS6 engine,” GE said.
The White House said India “intends” to buy armed General Atomics’s MQ-9B SeaGuardian unmanned aerial vehicles. When it comes to the waters, the US Navy has concluded a Master Ship Repair Agreement with Larsen and Toubro Shipyard in Kottapuli and is finalizing agreements with Mazagon Dock Limited and Goa Shipyard.
“These agreements will allow mid-voyage US Navy ships to undergo service and repair at Indian shipyards, facilitating cost-effective and time-saving sustain for US military operations across multiple theaters,” the White House statement said.
Ryder said the Pentagon and service will have more details on the plan shortly but the “aim” is to make India a logistics hub for the US and other partners in the region.
“We intend to support India in the creation of logistics, repair, and maintenance infrastructure for aircraft and ships… that is obviously something that will be important as we work together to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the one-star general added.
The two nations also vowed to strengthen undersea domain awareness cooperation, and launched negotiations for a Security of Supply Arrangement and Reciprocal Defense Procurement Arrangement to mitigate defense supply chain disruptions.
In addition to those White House announcements, on Wednesday the two countries launched the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X), in part, to shore up the defense industry cooperation and technology sharing between the two nations.
“This is a transformational moment in the US-India Defense Partnership,” a senior US defense official told reporters on Tuesday ahead of the launch.
“We think this is a relationship that is full of tremendous opportunity, and that is two of the world’s largest democracies, with some of the most innovative workers and companies working more closely together on strategic technologies and how we can leverage them for security is a natural next step in this relationship,” the official later added.
While most of the attention has been around government-to-government relations, INDUS-X is designed to bring the private sector more into the fold and boost tech defense startups in both countries.