India lines up $10 bn defence deals with US |
Indian government, despite ongoing trade disputes and immigration concerns, has been lining up defence deals worth around $10 billion for the US over the next two-three years. New Delhi and Moscow have also worked out payment mechanisms to get around Washington`s sanctions regime against acquisition of Russian weapon systems. Sources say that the deal finalised by India under the foreign military sales programme of the US is for the acquisition of 10 more Poseidon-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft for over $3 billion. “The procurement case for the 10 P-8I aircraft was cleared by a MoD committee last week. It will now be sent for approval to the Defence Acquisitions Council headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh by August. The other deals in the pipeline include 24 naval multi-role MH-60 `Romeo` helicopters ($2.6 billion), the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System-II for the missile shield over Delhi (almost $1 billion) and six more Apache attack helicopters ($930 million).
|
|
|
|