The draft National Defense Authorization Act asks the US defense secretary to deepen cooperation with India in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), undersea domain awareness, air combat
As part of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), the umbrella legislation that determines the United States (US)‘s defence budget and priorities, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has asked Pentagon to ensure that India is “appropriately considered for security cooperation benefits” consistent with its status as a major defence partner.
In particular, the draft NDAA asks the US defence secretary to deepen cooperation with India in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), undersea domain awareness, air combat and support, munitions, and mobility. It lists out a set of areas, including counter-terror operations, maritime and border security operations, and military intelligence operations where the Pentagon should consider a reciprocal agreement with India to build capacity.
It asks Pentagon to explore eligibility for Indian companies to bid on contracts for “maintenance, repair and overhaul” of Department of Defence (DOD)’s equipment located outside the US, a significant step which, if realised, will open up doors for India’s mushrooming private defence firms.
To be sure, this version of NDAA, while passed on a bipartisan basis by the Senate Armed Services Committee, is not the final act yet. The House of Representatives is in the process of finalising its own version of the NDAA, and eventually, the two versions, passed by the two chambers, will be reconciled in conference before the text is finalised.
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, led what was the most high-powered Congressional delegation to India in diplomatic history earlier this year, where he highlighted the centrality of the partnership with India in the competition with China and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Jack Reed, the chair of the SASC, was a part of the delegation.
During his state visit to Washington DC last month, Modi addressed a joint meeting of the Senate and the House where his reference to deeper India-US defence ties was greeted with a standing ovation and applause. He met Schumer during an interaction with the Congressional leadership in the Capitol and also interacted with Schumer at the state dinner hosted by President Joe Biden, where the Senate majority leader was seated at the head table with the President and the PM.
The two countries have also unveiled and operationalised the initiative on critical and emerging technologies (ICET), under which a key component is a defence industrial cooperation road map. During defence secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to New Delhi in June, this road map was finalised and during Modi’s visit, in a rare gesture, the White House expedited the approval of the co-production of GE’s F414 jet engines in India with an unprecedented element of tech transfer.
The first is “eligibility for funding to initiate or facilitate cooperative research, development, testing, or evaluation projects” with the DOD in AI, undersea domain awareness, air combat, and support, munitions, and mobility.
The second is “eligibility to enter into reciprocal agreements with the Department of Defence for the cooperative provision of training on a bilateral or multilateral basis in support of programs for the purpose of building capacity”. It specifies eight areas of cooperation in this regard, including counterterrorism operations; counter-weapons of mass destruction operations; counter-illicit drug trafficking operations; counter-transnational organised crime operations; maritime and border security operations; military intelligence operations; air domain awareness operations; and cyberspace security and defensive cyberspace operations.
The third line of effort that the Senate asks the Pentagon to pursue with regard to India is its “eligibility to enter into a memorandum of understanding or other formal agreement with the Department of Defence for the purpose of conducting cooperative research and development projects on defence equipment and munitions”.
And finally, it mandates DOD to explore “eligibility for companies from India to bid on contracts for the maintenance, repair, or overhaul” of DOD equipment located outside the US.
The NDAA draft also instructs the defence secretary to provide, by March 1, 2024, a briefing to the relevant committees of the Senate and House on the status of “security cooperation activities with India” in the areas outlined above.
Disclaimer: This Article is auto-generated from the HT news service.
