NEW DELHI: The trade deal may have proved elusive but President Donald Trump will certainly get the good news of the US bagging two more lucrative Indian defence contracts worth $3 billion, with several other deals worth over $7 billion being in the pipeline, when he comes visiting early next week.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by PM Narendra Modi, on Wednesday gave the final nod to the two deals to acquire 24 MH-60 `Romeo’ naval multi-mission helicopters for Rs 15,157 crore ($2.12 billion) and six additional AH-64E Apache attack choppers for Rs 5,691 crore ($796 million) from the US, said top sources.

“The contracts for the 30 heavy-duty armed choppers, or the `letters of acceptance’ as they are called under the foreign military sales (FMS) programme of the US government, will be inked soon after Trump’s visit since the validity of the two commercial offers expires in February and March. The original costs were a little higher but have been brought down through negotiations. The payment will be done in instalments, with the first one being 15% of the total value,” said a source.

TOI on February 13 had reported the two chopper deals were going to be cleared by the CCS this week, and that they would take the total value of Indian defence contracts bagged by the US to well past the $20 billion mark just since 2007.

The other proposed deals in the pipeline include six more P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft ($1.8 billion), the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System-II for the missile shield over Delhi ($1.8 billion), 30 Sea Guardian armed drones (over $2.5 billion) and 13 big MK-45 naval gun systems for warships ($1.02 billion).

The flurry of defence deals will help assuage continuing US concerns over India first inking the $5.43 billion contract for S-400 Triumf missile systems with Russia in October 2018, and then following it with another $3 billion deal for lease of a Akula-1 nuclear-powered attack submarine in March 2019.

“We have clearly told the US that we have a separate and long-standing strategic partnership with Russia that will continue as before. India has never compromised the operational secrecy of weapons it has bought from any country, nor does it pass sensitive military information to a third party,” said a senior official.

Sources said the first six MH-60R helicopters, equipped with multi-mode radars and night-vision capabilities as well as Hellfire missiles, MK-54 torpedoes and precision-kill rockets for potent anti-submarine warfare, will be delivered in a year. The rest 18 will come within four years to plug the critical operational deficiency of such choppers on board Indian warships when Chinese submarines are regularly prowling in the Indian Ocean Region.

The six Apaches, armed with Stinger air-to-air missiles, Hellfire Longbow air-to-ground missiles, guns and rockets, in turn, will be delivered in three-and-a-half years. These six Apaches are meant for the Army, and will follow 22 such helicopters already inducted by IAF under a Rs 13,952 crore deal inked with the US in September 2015.

