India is getting set to acquire the massive ShinMaywa US-2i amphibious aircraft from Japan as part of their expanding bilateral strategic partnership, with both nations wary of China’s assertive behaviour in the Asia-Pacific region. The defence acquisitions council (DAC), chaired by Manohar Parrikar, will take up the proposal to “empower” the joint working group (JWG) to negotiate the purchase of at least 12 US-2i aircraft for the Navy for around $1.3 billion. “It will be like an AON (acceptance of necessity) that the Navy requires 12 US-2i as of now, and the commercial negotiations for them can begin. The Coast Guard, in turn, may require five such planes,” said a defence ministry source. The JWG set up by India and Japan has been discussing “cooperation on the US-2 amphibian aircraft”, including technology transfer and licenced production, since 2013 but a decisive stage seems to have been reached now. When PM Mr. Narendra Modi visited Japan last September for talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, the two directed the JWG to “accelerate progress in the discussions and preparations for a roadmap for the development of the Indian aircraft industry through the US-2 aircraft cooperation”. This, as is evident, envisages a much bigger project in the making, which will probably kick-off with the initial defence acquisition of 12 aircraft. The Modi government has also asked Japan, which recently lifted its five-decade-old arms export embargo, if it’s interested in fielding its Soryu-class submarines for the over Rs 50,000 crore project to build six stealth submarines in India, as was first reported by TOI.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Leave Your Comment