On July 12, 2023, a powerful American senator from the Democrats Party, Mike Warner, said that the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) that funds the annual budget of the United States Military has asked the Pentagon to expand cooperation with India in the areas of emerging technology, logistics artificial intelligence, undersea maritime domain awareness along with munitions.
As part of the NDAA, the Senate Armed Service Committee (SASC) has asked the Pentagon to ensure that India is appropriately considered for security cooperation benefits consistent with its status as a ‘major defence partner’.
It also stresses deeper American support and cooperation with India on a number of other issues, such as counter-terrorism, Maritime and border security operations, along with military intelligence.
It has asked the Pentagon to explore eligibility for Indian companies to bid on contracts for maintenance, repair and overhaul of the Department of Defence (DOD) equipment located outside the US. This will be a significant step, which, when realised, will open new doors for Mushrooming India’s private defence firms.
To be sure, this version of the NDAA, while being passed on a bipartisan basis by the Senate Armed Service 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 both chambers will be reconciled in a conference before the text is finalised.
The NDAA draft asks the Secretary of State and other relevant heads of agencies to explore four more lines of effort to ensure that India benefits from its status as a major defence partner. The first line is related to eligibility for funding to initiate or facilitate research, cooperation, testing, and evaluation projects with the DOD in AI, maritime domain awareness, air combat and support along with munitions and mobility.
The second line is related to eligibility to enter into reciprocal agreements with the Department of Defence (DOD) for the cooperative provision of training on a bilateral or multi-lateral basis in support of programmes for the purpose of building capacities.
It identifies eight areas of cooperation in this regard which include counter-terrorism, countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD) counter- illicit drug trafficking operations, counter-transnational organised crime operations, maritime and border security operations, military intelligence operations and air domain awareness operations, and it further inculcated cyber operations (offensive and defensive).
The third line of effort that the US Senate asks the Pentagon to pursue with regard to India is the eligibility to enter into an MoU (Memorandum Of Understanding) or any formal agreement with the DOD (Department of Defence) for the purpose of conducting cooperative research and development projects for defence equipment and munitions.
Lastly, the NDAA mandates the DOD to explore eligibility for companies from India to bid on contracts for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of DOD Equipment outside the US. The 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.
But the Senate version is understood to have the sanctions of the chamber’s top political leadership. It is based on inputs from the DOD and is a result of intense engagement between India and the US Congress in recent months.
The Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer led the high-powered Congress delegation to India in diplomatic history earlier in 2023, where he highlighted the centrality of the partnership with India in the competition with the Peoples Republic of China and met PM Narendra Modi. Jack Reed, who chaired the SASC, was also a part of the delegation.
During his state visit to the US last month, PM Modi addressed the joint meeting of the Senate and the House, where his reference to deepening the ties between India and the US was greeted with a standing ovation and applause. He also had an interaction with Chuck during the state dinner hosted by Joe Biden, where the Senate Majority leader was seated at her head table and with the President and the Prime Minister.
The two countries have also signed and unveiled, and operationalised the Initiative of Critical and Emerging Technologies(iCET), under which a defence industrial roadmap is a key component. During the visit of the US Defence Secretary Llyod Austin to New Delhi in June 2023, this roadmap was finalised. During PM Modi’s visit in a rare gesture, the White House expedited the approval of the co-production of GE-414 jet engines in India with an unprecedented number of technology transfers.
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