India, US discuss defence cooperation
US deputy secretary of defence Ashton Carter met defence secretary R.K. Mathur at the ministry of defence (MoD) in the capital on Tuesday at a meeting in which both sides are believed to have discussed Indo-US defence co-operation, defence sources said. India is making acquisitions worth billions of dollars from the United States.
The situation in the neighbourhood — particularly developments relating to China, Pakistan and Afghanistan — may have also been discussed at the meeting.
Significantly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also scheduled to visit the United States soon amid speculation that some defence deals may be inked during the visit.
Just last week, the MoD’s defence acquisition council had cleared the proposed acquisition of six more C-130 J Hercules transport aircraft from US aviation company Lockheed Martin for about `4,000 crore which will eventually take the total number of these aircraft within the IAF to 12. India had earlier inked a deal for acquisition of six of these C-130 J aircraft. India had also earlier inked a deal with US aviation giant Boeing for acquisition of ten C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft for the IAF, of which three have already been delivered to the IAF. In addition, India is also in the process of acquiring 15 Chinook Ch-47F heavy-lift helicopters and 22 AH-64D Block-III Apache helicopters from US aviation giant Boeing for the IAF. The Accept-ance of Necessity cost for the 15 Chinook Heavy Lift Helicopters and 22 Apache Attack Helicopters is about `2468 crore and about `3094 crore respectively. India is also in talks with the US to acquire M-777 ultra-light howitzers for the Army which is expected to boost the Army’s artillery firepower.
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