Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday interacted with captains of several American defence companies in Washington and outlined the emerging co-development and co-production opportunities in India while enumerating reforms initiated by the government to make the country an attractive destination for foreign original equipment manufacturers and an alternative export hub.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh interacted with the senior leaders of the US defence industry after their round-table meeting, in Washington on Friday.

“Singh highlighted that ‘partnership and joint efforts’ are the two keywords that differentiate India’s defence industry from other nations,” the defence ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

US-India Strategic Partnership Forum organised the industry roundtable.

The companies represented at the event included General Electric, Boeing, General Atomics, General Dynamics Land Systems, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies and Rolls Royce.

India is negotiating key deals with some of them.

“Had fruitful interaction with leading US defence companies. Invited them to work with Indian partners to accelerate our Make in India program towards achieving Atmanirbharta in defence sector. Together, Indian and US companies will co-develop and co-produce for the world,” Singh wrote on X.

Last year, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and GE signed a memorandum of understanding for transfer of technology (ToT) and manufacturing of GE-F414 aero-engines for the future light combat aircraft (TEJAS MK-2).

The joint production of GE’s F414 engines in India, for which negotiations are in full swing, will help the country overcome a striking technology gap, lay the foundation for indigenous development of bigger jet engines, and possibly open doors to exports.

However, the current TEJAS MK-1A program is running behind schedule and one of the main reasons for that is the lingering delay in the supply of the F404 engines to HAL by the US firm. The delivery of the engines is delayed by around 10 months.

GE is working with HAL to fix issues related to the delay, attributing it to supply chain bottlenecks in the aerospace industry.

India is also negotiating a deal with the US for 31 MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft systems, manufactured by General Atomics, to boost the Indian military’s strength. Also, Boeing has to supply six AH64E Apache attack helicopters to the Indian Army, while Lockheed Martin is executing a contract to equip the Indian Navy with MH-60R helicopters.

During the interaction, the business leaders outlined their ongoing projects and plans for India.

Singh said that the “progressive reforms” in the domestic defence sector have encouraged many foreign original equipment manufacturers to set up manufacturing units in India and enter into joint ventures with local firms to produce military hardware.

Deepening defence industrial cooperation was high on the agenda during Singh’s meetings with US national security advisor Jake Sullivan and secretary of defence Lloyd Austin.

In 2023, the two countries concluded a new roadmap for defence industrial cooperation with the goal of fast-tracking technology cooperation and co-production in critical areas, including air combat and land mobility systems, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, munitions, and the undersea domain.

India’s defence landscape has transformed in the last few years.

The country’s military exports have risen sharply, and imports have dropped on the back of policy initiatives and reforms during the last 10 years, and it is on course to achieve an annual defence export target of ₹50,000 by 2028-29.

India’s defence exports stood at ₹6,915 crore during April-June 2024, defence ministry data shows. This is 78% higher than ₹3,885 crore for the corresponding period in the financial year 2023-24.

In April, the defence ministry announced that India’s defence exports grew 32.5% in 2023-24 and crossed ₹21,000 crore for the first time as the country remained focussed on boosting the indigenous defence manufacturing sector as well as military exports.

The value of exports in 2023-24 was 32.5% higher than what it was in the preceding year when it stood at ₹15,920 crore. Defence exports have grown 31 times in the past 10 years, the data shows.

(With Inputs From Agencies)