India-U.S defense relations

Why is it in news?
  • The U.S Department of State has approved the sale of 24 MH-60R ‘Romeo’ multi-mission helicopters to India under its Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme.
More in news
  • About Deal:
    (1) The value of the potential sale is $2.6 billion.
    (2) Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) administers the FMS programme.
    (3) The principal contractor for the deal will be Lockheed Martin.
    (4) The Indian government had submitted a Letter of Request for the Romeos last year.
    (5) Next procedure steps-through congress:
    (6) The DSCA submitted its certification notifying the U.S. Congress of the possible sale, kicking off a 30-day notification period.
    (7) Congress is not required to approve or disapprove the potential sale.
    (8) If it simply takes no action for the 30-day period, the sale moves forward.
  • Why to go through congress?: As per U.S procedures, Congress must be notified for sales of Major Defense Equipment (MDE) of $14 million and above, defence articles and services of $50 million and above and design and construction services of $200 million and above to non-NATO countries.
  • Enhanced capability and deterrent:
    (1) The proposed sale will provide India the capability to perform anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare missions along with the ability to perform secondary missions, including vertical replenishment, search and rescue, and communications relay.
    (2) India will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defence.
  • About MH-60R helicopters:
    (1) There are over 300 MH-60R helicopters globally and they have accumulated over 6,00,000 flight hours.
    (2) The chopper is available off the shelf and costs no more than $5,000 per flight hour, and it is designed to operate from destroyers, frigates, cruisers and aircraft carriers as per the manufacturer.
    (3) The multi-mission capability of the Romeo includes anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, search and rescue, vertical replenishment, command and control.
  • India-U.S defense ties:
    (1) Major Defence Partner (MDP) designation:
    (2) India was granted the unique Major Defence Partner (MDP) designation in 2016 by the Obama administration.
    (3) It allows India to access U.S. military technology at a level on par with those of the U.S.’s closest allies.
    (4) Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 (STA-1) status:
    (5) India was also given Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 (STA-1) status by the U.S. in 2018, the third Asian country after South Korea and Japan (and 37th country globally) to acquire it.
    (6) This was to further facilitate the transfer of technology in the defence and space sectors.
Source
The Hindu




Posted by Jawwad Kazi on 4th Apr 2019
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