Over the last few years, there has been incredible momentum in U.S.-India ties, driven primarily by their defence relationship.

Highlights:

• The main objective defence partnership is technological innovation and growing military cooperation
• It strengthens the bilateral defence relationship by creating a road map to promote collaboration in the defence industry
• Ties aims to expedite crucial co-development and co-production initiatives, fostering stronger connections between the defence sectors of the two countries
• Strong rationale for projecting broader industrial cooperation between Indian and U.S. companies in the defence sector is the existing scale of American investments in India

India- US major defence ties

• S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) agreement :
• It envisages boosting defence manufacturing in India through greater technological cooperation and complement India’s own self-reliance mission and its desire to lessen import dependence.
• Indus-X,:
• This builds on the U.S.-India bilateral Space Situational Awareness arrangement signed in 2022, which promises to enhance information-sharing and cooperation in the space sector.
• The United States in 2016 elevated India to the status of major defence partner – which puts New Delhi on par with Washington’s closest allies.
• New areas in defence space exchanges have been identified based on the cooperation between the U.S. Space Command and India’s Defence Space Agency.
• India’s ‘Major Defence Partner’ (MDP) status along with the four foundational agreements signed with the U.S not only allowed the sharing of sensitive technologies without India having to become an ally .
• The procurement of the weaponised ‘hunter-killer’ drones from General Atomics was cleared at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC)
• Successful collaborations in aircraft systems like the P-8Is which are seen as useful in boosting India’s maritime reconnaissance and domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific expanse
• American companies led by Boeing, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Honeywell Aerospace, Raytheon, Textron and others partner across a range of manufacturing activities related to the defence sector with Indian companies, most prominently with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and the Tata group. These are likely to be supplemented by linking defence start-ups from both countries through an ‘innovation bridge’ that was announced in the iCET agreement.
• During the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue ,the U.S. Defence Secretary referred to the U.S.-India defence partnership as the cornerstone of their engagement in the Indo-Pacific.
• During the border crises with China and Pakistan, US shared ‘vital intelligence, rushed critical supplies and then approved the lease of MQ-9B drones for deterrence by detection’ during the dust-up at the Line of Actual Control.

Conclusion

• Deepening ties with India a cornerstone of US policy to counter China’s growing influence, placing special attention on collaboration between the world’s two largest democracies on advanced military technologies. The sky, it seems, is the limit in the emerging defence partnership between two of the world’s leading democracies