Rajnath’s four-day US visit from Aug 23, talks on pending big-ticket defence deals on agenda

The Defence ministry in a statement said the visit comes in the backdrop of the growing momentum in India-US relations and defence engagements at multiple levels.

“The visit is expected to further deepen and broaden the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership,” it added.

Singh’s visit is taking place in less than a year after Singh and Austin held a bilateral meeting following the India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue, during which both sides explored ways and means to advance defence technology cooperation with joint research in critical areas.

He is slated to chair a high-level roundtable meeting with the US defence industry on the ongoing and future defence collaborations and will also interact with the Indian community during the visit.

Officials privy to details of the visit said Singh is also likely to visit a few military facilities in the US and expedite the deliveries of the GE-F404 jet engines which power the indigenously-made Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mark-1A fighter. Recent delays in supply of the engines from GE have affected the delivery schedule of Tejas jets to the IAF.

The discussions are also likely to include other ongoing and likely high-end defence deals between the two countries, such as progress on the agreement between General Electric (GE) Aerospace and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to manufacture GE F-414 jet engines in India which would power the LCA MK 2 fighter jets, MQ-9B Predator drones, negotiations for which are still under progress. Negotiations for both have been progressing slowly, as per officials.

The GE-HAL pact was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the White House in June last year, which followed Singh’s previous bilateral meeting with Austin that focused on greater cooperation on development of advanced technologies and joint manufacturing of critical technologies. Last year, a top government official had said that India is working on having 15 to 20 percent of indigenous content in the MQ-9B High-Altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAVs, upping it from the eight to nine percent offered by General Atomics. Last year, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had cleared the procurement of 31 UAVs—15 for the Navy and eight each for the Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) a week before PM Modi’s visit to the US.

Co-production of the Stryker infantry vehicles and the javelin Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM)—on which India and the US have recently begun talks—may also feature in the discussions during Singh’s visit. The development of infantry combat vehicles for India, is part of the defence industry cooperation roadmap between the two countries.