‘Broken Barriers’: US Bullish On Jet Engine Tech-Sharing With India
Frank Kendall, Secretary, US Air Force, Tuesday said the US is “leaning forward” on India more than it used to in the past on transfer of military technology.
Frank Kendall, Secretary, US Air Force, Tuesday said Washington and New Delhi have “broken barriers” in terms of jet engine technology-sharing even as American conglomerate General Electric (GE) has offered to manufacture its military engines in India.
Kendall, who held wide-ranging discussions with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday, told a select a group of journalists that talks concerning technology sharing between the US and India are “moving forward”. “Our relationship with India has grown and expanded … Air and space forces have a lot of potential for cooperation that will be good for both of our economies,” Kendall, who is responsible for organising, training, and equipping the US Air and Space Forces, said.
Last month at the Aero India Show, US aircraft dominated Indian skies even as Washington showed its military might by sending F-35 and F-16 fighter planes and supersonic heavy bombers B-1B Lancers to Bengaluru. (https://news.abplive.com/india-at-2047/us-f35s-bombers-at-aero-india-icet-talk-between-ajit-doval-and-jake-sullivan-1583950/amp)
“We did break some barriers, we did make some progress… US is leaning forward more than it did before as far as technology sharing is concerned,” he said, adding that during his conversations with Doval and Jaishankar it was evident that both sides are keen on this and that the US is ready to support India’s ‘Make in India’ drive in the defence sector.
He said both sides are relaxing some of the provisions that government technology sharing. He added some of the clauses under ‘Make In India’ can be “problematic” so those discussions are going on to “make it easier for us to move forward”.
“There’s a shared perception that we can do more. There is a desire to move forward,” Kendall said when asked about GE’s proposal to make jet engines in this country.
According to him, the fact that GE is keen on producing and sharing jet engine technology in India is a “breakthrough” of sorts in US-India defence ties and said he hopes that both sides will “find a way to move that forward”.
‘China Is Our Basic Challenge’
The development comes after India and the US set in motion a new Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET). The first round of talks took place between NSA Doval and his American counterpart Jake Sullivan in January in Washington.
Under the iCET, both sides have decided to develop a new bilateral Defense Industrial Cooperation Roadmap to accelerate technological cooperation between both countries for the joint development and production, with an initial focus on exploring projects related to jet engines, munition-related technologies, and other systems.
“We need to work with our partners to ensure that we stay ahead of the game,” Kendall said.
He also said it is up to India to decide what kind of capabilities it wants for its Air Force.
The US is keen on selling Lockheed Martin’s F-21 fighters, Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet and MQ-9 Reaper armed drones made by General Atomics, among others to India, which is also America’s ‘Major Defence Partner’.
Kendall also said that India and the US are at an early stage to conclude an ‘Air Information Sharing Agreement’ that will be “over and above” the defence foundational pacts that India and the US have signed - Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), and Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA).
On the US-India collaboration in the Indo-Pacific region, he said: “China is our basic challenge… Because of some of its strategic objectives we are concerned about China.”
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