As India and the US hold fresh talks on three contentious defence foundational agreements, a top American military official on Wednesday batted for the pacts, saying these are an opportunity for deeper collaboration and cooperation in the key sector.
The sale of 10 AGM-84L Harpoon Block II air-launched missiles is estimated to cost $92 million (Rs 699 crore), while 16 MK 54 All Up Round Lightweight Torpedoes and three MK 54 Exercise Torpedoes are estimated to cost $63 million (Rs 478.8 crore), the Defence Security Cooperation Agency said on Monday in two separate notifications to the Congress.
Beyond the British and Russian strands interwoven into the Indian Navy's equipment profile and the strong drive towards indigenisation evident today, its future in aircraft carriers appears increasingly linked with America.
Essentially there is no change in the US policy on the security aid to Pakistan which is currently under freeze.
The IAF had said that during the aerial engagement on February 27, one of its MiG-21 Bison shot down a F-16.
The USS John Paul Jones acted like a dog marking the lamp post, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The UK said the deployment of the carrier strike group marks the start of "a new era of defence cooperation with allies in India and the Indo-Pacific."
Qureshi said the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad had been informed of Pakistan's decision to not allow prime minister's Modi's special Air India One aircraft to fly over the country.
Indian Admirals say Malabar 2018 will involve unprecedented complexity, featuring enemy threats in all three dimensions, but especially underwater threats from submarines -- a key Chinese strength. For the first time, officers from all three navies will be posted on other navies' warships. That means Indian Navy officers will obtain the unprecedented benefits of operating on US nuclear attack submarines and Japan's highly regarded Soryu submarines.
$1 billion worth of naval guns will be used against warships, anti-aircraft and shore bombardment.
Britain has finalised 1 billion pounds worth of new trade and investment with India, creating over 6,500 jobs in the UK, to be signed off at a virtual summit between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Tuesday. The investments confirmed by Downing Street on Monday evening form part of an Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP), which will set the ambition to double the value of UK-India trade by 2030 and declare a shared intent to begin work towards a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA). "Like every aspect of the UK-India relationship, the economic links between our countries make our people stronger and safer," Johnson said.
Curtains will fall on the Rim of the Pacific 2016, the world's largest international maritime exercise, on August 4.
The deal was signed between Embraer and the DRDO for three aircraft equipped with indigenous radars for airborne early warning and control systems.
Carter arrived at INS Dega in Vishakhapatnam and was briefed by top officials about the activities of the Eastern Naval Command.
India and the United States are working on efforts to improve cooperation on UN terrorist designations and expand the sharing of information on known or suspected terrorists "no matter where they may be located," says US Ambassador to India Richard Verma
The French president said that peace should be maintained in the region and peoples' rights should be protected.
Esper also highlighted the 'increased' military cooperation with India and called it as 'one of the most important defence relationships of the 21th century'.
Under the 'Major Defence Partner' recognition, the US will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners.
USL is already contesting a Karnataka High Court order.
'Cooperation at sea involves not just ships going out together and carrying out exercises over a couple of days, but understanding the whys and the wherefores,' points out Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
Once installed, the LAIRCAM system increases crew-warning time, decreases false alarm rates and automatically counters advanced intermediate range missile systems.
'We use the word "historic" perhaps too much, but the prime minister's visit certainly was historic in so many ways.'
With the signing of the pact, the Quad grouping of India, Japan, Australia and the US is set to gain more heft now, notes Dr Rajaram Panda.
China, which considers the estranged island of Taiwan as part of its mainland, vociferously objects to any high-level foreign dignitaries meeting Taiwanese leaders.
The time is ripe to extend the confrontation with the Chinese to the maritime domain, says former RA&W officer Krishan Varma.
The navy has significantly expanded its deployment in the Indian Ocean Region deploying a plethora of warships and submarines to create pressure points on China as the maritime space around the Malacca Strait is very critical for its supply chain through sea routes.
Between 2008 and 2015, India purchased defence equipments worth $34 billion, which is a distant second after Saudi Arabia's $93.5 billion, said the report 'Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations 2008-2015' released by Congressional Research Service.
The India-Japan 2+2 dialogue added strategic heft to the special relationship in the wake of growing Chinese assertiveness on regional affairs, points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
The agreement would divert China's attention and keep them busy in the Pacific theatre, probably resulting in a reduction in threat perception in our area of interest in the Indian Ocean, notes Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
The $10.5 billion arms and equipment deal helped to arrest the recent drift in the 'special and privileged' strategic partnership, observes Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said even though India's options have increased, Russia will remain the country's "most important" defence partner as Moscow offered to fully manufacture in this country one of its most advanced helicopters.
The three-day DPG meet will discuss future activities and look at threat perception on a conceptual level.
There's still little indication of forward movement in Indo-US defence relations.
Boeing also won a $4.5-billion contract for 10 C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, and will soon start delivery of $3 billion contracts to supply 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and 15 CH-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters., reports Ajai Shukla.
Exercise Tiger Triumph -- a full-scale, tri-service beach landing operation -- is a capability India is seeking to build.
French naval commander expresses concern over China expanding its maritime influence in the region.
The team visited several locations in Arunachal Pradesh to determine if the reported sites can be definitively correlated with known crash sites involving missing US servicemen.
The over Rs 50,000-crore deal for supplying 126 Rafale combat aircraft and the security situation in the Af-Pak region are understood to have been discussed during the Defence Minister-level talks between India and France in New Delhi on Friday.
Colombo seems to be veering to the middle path between China and the US on global matters, but in regional matters of strategic security, it is increasingly identifying with India, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
There are times in each nation's life when the gods shower their blessings on it. The right leaders are in place and they make the right decisions. Everything seems to click and good luck favours its people. Such times came to this country 50 years ago, recalls Admiral J G Nadkarni (retd).
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