India and the US are in talks to jointly manufacture armoured vehicles here even as the two sides on Friday discussed progress on key recent defence deals like co-development of General Electric (GE) F414 engines for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas and procurement of $3 billion worth 31 MQ-9 Predator armed drones made by the General Atomic (GA).

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin in the national capital, focussing on “enhancing defence industrial cooperation and getting the defence industries from both sides together to cooperatively co-develop and co-produce defence systems,” the Ministry of Defence stated. This was post the Defence Minister along with his cabinet colleague, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin as part of their annual 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.

Defence Secretary Aramane Giridhar told reporters after the talks that the US has offered several infantry combat vehicle systems in which India has evinced interest. Austin, at a separate briefing for a select few journalists, disclosed, “We are working together to co-produce an armoured vehicle and that is extremely important”. The US has reportedly offered eight-wheeled armoured vehicle Stryker, produced by General Dynamic Land Systems. Domestically also, there are many defence PSUs and private companies that are manufacturing different classes of armoured vehicles.

Giridhar Aramane also said that GE deal with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for transferring of technology for together manufacturing of 99 F414 engines that would power LCA Tejas MK 11 was on track. “We are finalising the commercial arrangements and the necessary legal requirements are being put in place,” the told journalists. Signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to US in June, it is expected to cost less than a billion dollars and would catapult India into an elite league of four, after the US, Russian and France, that have the capacity to build such engines.

Similarly, the Defence Secretary also informed that India is waiting for the GE to get US government clearances for proceeding to the next stage on the acquisition of 31 MQ-9B drones at a cost of more than $3 billion.

Summing up his engagement, Rajnath Singh said he had “excellent meeting” with Lloyd Austin. “We talked about ways to further strengthen defence relationship between our nations. The scope for cooperation in defence is immense. We are chatting new pathways of cooperation by pursuing stronger defence industrial engagement and ensuring resilient supply chains in all domains,” he posted on X.

Industrial cooperation

Besides military industrial cooperation, the two ministers during the bilateral defence meeting also discussed security issues in the Indo Pacific region and challenges emerging from China.

Rajnath Singh and Lloyd Austin also explored, said MoD, ways and means to advance their defence technology cooperation with joint research in critical areas. They reviewed the progress of the India-US Defence Industrial Ecosystem, INDUS-X, which was launched in June this year and aims to expand the strategic technology partnership and defence industrial cooperation between the governments, businesses and academic institutions of India and US, elaborated the Ministry.

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