BENGALURU: India and the United States are on the threshold of arriving at an agreement on transfer of technology for aircraft carriers under the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) signed by the two nations, defence minister Manohar Parrikar announced on Friday.
“We are in the final stage of agreeing on aircraft carrier technologies,” he told the media here after witnessing the inaugural flight of Hindustan Turbo Trainer (HTT-40) basic trainer aircraft designed and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) here.
Hindustan Turboprop Trainer on a trial flight
Mr Parrikar has discussed the possibility of co-development and co-production of advanced defence products, including aircraft carriers, as part of DTTI with U.S. Defence Secretary Ashton Carter. Though development and production of advanced jet engines too was part of DTTI, the minister said the offer made by the United States did not meet the expectations of ministry of defence (MoD).
On export of Bramhos supersonic missiles to Vietnam, he said, “In principle decisions have been taken to export missiles to certainly friendly countries. During my visit to Vietnam, I asked them (Vietnam government) to give an informal requirement. We have designated our people, and they will discuss about them the requirement (of Vietnam), and we will then take a decision.”
Read: Manohar Parrikar showers praise on team HTT-40
He further said, a "lot many” countries were keen to import Indian armaments, and such requests for exports would be met in consonance with international laws. And, to meet the demand for Indian missiles, his ministry has decided to earmark for exports ten per cent of the missiles manufactured indigenously.
“We have increased production of Aakash missiles from 200 to 500. This is true with other missiles. We will export the weapons without affecting our demand,” he added.
Describing incidents of Chinese incursion on the Indian side of the border as “transgression,” the minister said “Whenever they have transgressed, we have either stopped them and asked them to go back or raised the issue with them. But I can tell you the overall transgression that means violation of our line of control perception has reduced a lot when compared to earlier,” he added.
Rafale deal round the corner
The deal for acquisition of 36 Rafale fighter jets in fly-away condition could happen soon as negotiations with France were “coming to a conclusion,” said Mr Parrikar. “It’s a big purchase, even 0.1 percent savings mean hundreds of crores,” he said.
Fighting capability to be ‘recalibrated’
Parrikar said a team led by a Lt General rank officer has been set up to work on “recalibration” of fighting capabilities. This team will explore the possibility of setting up a joint command to reduce the number of commands. “India has 17 commands, while China has only six
