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US pips Russia as top arms supplier to India

NEW DELHI: Wooing of the world's biggest arms importer continues unabashedly. Just before US President Barack Obama touches down in New Delhi on January 24, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu will be town to further boost military cooperation with India.With India trying to claw out of its embarrassing and strategically-vulnerable position of still importing around 65% of its military requirements, the two erstwhile bitter Cold War rivals have now taken to brandishing their support for Modi's 'Make in India' policy. Both promise an effortless and fruitful transition from the existing buyer-seller relationship to co-development and co-production of top-notch weapon systems.The new 10-year defence framework to be inked during Obama's visit will incorporate the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), which the US promises will help strengthen India's fledgling defence industrial base, as earlier reported by TOI.Russia, in turn, wants an early inking of the joint projects for co-development of the stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) and multi-role transport aircraft (MTA), both of which are stuck due to Indian worries over technical, cost and delivery issues.India, US agree on arms deal, but technology transfer remains keyBut no defence deals will actually be inked during the visits of either Shoigu or Obama. Shoigu will co-chair the 13th round of Indo-Russian intergovernmental commission on military technical cooperation with his counterpart Manohar Parrikar on January 21, a month after President Vladimir Putin's visit to India.Sources said the FGFA project will figure right on top of the agenda, with India keen on Russia resolving the technical issues as well as ensuring that delivery of the stealth fighter begins much before the earlier slated induction from 2024-2025 onwards.Once India and Russia ink the final R&D agreement, which was to be signed in 2012, both will contribute $5.5 billion each towards the cost of designing, infrastructure build-up, prototype development and flight testing.The 127 single-seat fighters for India, to be built at the Ozar facility of Hindustan Aeronautics in Nashik, will cost extra. India will spend a total of $25 billion on the FGFA project.The strategic embrace with the US is relatively new. Even though the two are holding a staggering round of combat exercises, India is yet to fully shed its long-standing inhibitions about the US being a reliable long-term defence supplier of advanced arms technologies.Consequently, as earlier reported by TOI, with US undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics Frank Kendall slated to hold talks on January 22 here, the co-production under DTTI will kick-off with only two "simple technologies". A hand-launched mini UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and aircraft surveillance-cum-intelligence gathering modules are likely to be selected from the earlier long list of offers made by the US.