(MENAFN- QNA) Renewing their expansive defense framework for another ten years, India and the United States decided to kick off joint manufacturing of four relatively modest military products and explore the development of two more high-end technologies.
The two nations agreed to step up joint combat exercises, maritime security endeavors, intelligence-sharing mechanisms, military exchanges and the like through the framework, which has the key new element of Defense Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI) to bolster India's fledgling defense-industrial base, as reported by TOI on January 11, The Times of India reported.
The DTTI will be launched with four aptly-called "pathfinder projects" since India wants to first ascertain how these "not-so-complex technologies" actually materialize on the ground. The Indian defense establishment, after all, is yet to fully shed its long-standing inhibitions about the US being a reliable long-term supplier of top-notch technologies.
The four products to be co-produced are the next-generation Raven unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), "roll-on, roll-off" intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance modules for C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, mobile electric hybrid power sources and "uniform integrated protection ensemble increment-2 (chemical, biological warfare protection gear for soldiers)".
Both Obama and Modi promised the DTTI would take the bilateral defence cooperation to a new level altogether with "additional joint projects in the near future". Towards this end, the decision to set up working groups to explore development of aircraft carrier technologies and jet engines is crucial.
President Obama arrived in India on Sunday on three-day visit.
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