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India Defence Online, New Delhi – Indo-US military ties are expected to be heightened as the Indian Army Chief General VK Singh’s six-day long visit to the US is currently underway. The US visit comes two years after former Indian Army Chief had visited the country. The current Indian delegation includes the Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar.
Among the main highlights of this US visit will be a discussion regarding the procurement of 145 ultra light howitzers (ULHs) which India intends to buy from the US through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route. It may be noted that since the infamous Bofors scam in the 1980s, Indian artillery has not seen the induction of a new gun in the last two decades. Currently, BAE Systems of US is making the M-777 ULH but the process has been disrupted again as trial reports of the howitzer were leaked prompting the Army Headquarters to order a court of inquiry.
During the current visit, the Indian Army Chief General VK Singh would also be discussing the acquisition of ten C-17 heavy lift transport aircraft and the procurement of the Javelin missile system which India plans to acquire through the FMS route as well. In addition to discussing these crucial Indo-US defence deals, the Army chief will visit important US Armed Forces establishments and meet a number of high ranking defence and civilian officials. The Indian Army Chief will also be inducted into ‘The Hall of Fame’ of the US Army War College, Carlisle since he is a pass out of the alumini.
The current US visit by the Indian Army Chief is a crucial step in enhancing and diversifying of Indo-US military ties. Without doubt, defence cooperation has been accelerated with the new framework for US-India Defence Relations. In fact, US undertakes the highest number of joint exercises with India amongst all nations that includes the navy-to-navy ‘Malabar’ and ‘SALVEX’, army-to-army ‘Yudhabhyas’ and aerial ‘Cope-India’ exercises.
In addition, a two day Indo-US Defence Policy Group (DPG) meeting concluded last week in the US in which officials of the two countries discussed regional security, issues of mutual concerns and maritime security. The DPG serves as the primary mechanism to guide the US-India strategic defence relationship. The DPG meeting involved a review of the bilateral ties and discussions on the situation of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The DPG meeting between two sides came ahead of current six-day visit of Army Chief General V.K Singh to US.
Interestingly, it was the Indian Army Chief V.K. Singh, who had warned against the pitfalls of buying defence equipments from US at the governmental level or the FMS route last year. It also happened to be the first time a senior member of the Indian defence system had objected to the purchase of important defence weapons from the US by the national government. The warning had come since the Indian Army was facing a lot of issues with the maintenance of some of the equipments bought as per the FMS route. According to sources, General V.K.Singh, had pointed the problems with the maintenance of a couple of radars that are used for locating weapons and were bought from US firm Raytheon. Sources in the Indian Army revealed that at times 60 per cent of these radars suffer from lack of maintenance. As a result, it was suggested that lawyers who are familiar with international contracts and negotiations be employed for analysing the contracts of the howitzers and other crucial FMS deals with the US.
Indian defence news and strategic intelligence
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