Under this joint venture the Intellectual Property Right (IPR) will be retained by India for High Thrust Low bypass engine (110kn+).

In 2021, Rolls-Royce in India said it was interested in collaborating with India to co-develop and produce engines for India’s AMCA fifth-generation fighter aircraft project.

It has been reported in Financial Express Online that in 2017 both India and the UK had agreed to cooperate in the development of advanced defence projects and this also included the gas turbine engine and air defence missile systems. And, as reported in Financial Express Online, there is a collaborative project Defence Research and Development Organisation and the British engine maker Rolls Royce on jet engine technology.

According to reports Kishore Jayaraman, president of Rolls-Royce India and South Asia, has said that if a partnership is formed, the Indian government will hold the Intellectual Property (IP) rights for the engines.

According to company officials, Rolls-Royce feels it can be an effective partner for AMCA’s engine manufacturing in India. This area represents the future – to co-develop, co-manufacture, and co-create.  And it is consistent with India’s indigenous design and manufacturing drive and the Atmanirbhar way.

For the Rafale fighters, Rolls Royce has offered a Eurojet EJ200 version with 110-120KN thrust. The SAFRAN-DRDO joint venture is planned with complete ToT and is based on the M88 engine base type.

On the other hand the United States’ interest in the fighter engine programme has lately been rekindled. Due to American reluctance to share core or hot engine technology, the India-US Defense Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI) collaboration on jet engine technology was postponed in October 2019. Within the DTTI framework, a joint working group on jet engine technology was subsequently disbanded. However, in the first development phase of the AMCA project, a commercially available GE-414 engine will be purchased and installed.

There is no agreement yet in place between DRDO and RR, since the NGFA 110kn+ is not expected to begin development until 2030. Depending on the final cost of the engine project, a joint IP is also considered in addition to an Indian-only IP.

Approximately 250 GE-404 84KN engines are required to power the LCA Mk1/1A. India has ordered only half of the requirement from GE. The GE-414’s other two opponents are the Rolls Royce EJ 200 engine and the Safran M-88 – 4 engine.

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“The way forward is to identify capabilities that we can work on and the hurdles that have to be overcome. The difference this time around is that the defence relationship is in a much stronger position and there has been a leader level direction,” the official said. Under the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative, a joint project for air launched UAVs has already been announced and two more projects for counter drone systems and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms were likely to be finalised soon.

“Bureaucratic concerns potentially associated with tech transfer that existed before will all get very careful consideration,” the official said, addressing questions on past tech transfer plans which did not materialise. While broad areas for cooperation have been identified in artificial intelligence, cyberspace and space, the two countries are looking at specific areas like undersea technologies for collaboration.

The US also shares concerns about the military expansions by China in IOR. There has been a pattern to PLA actions – from activities in the south China Sea, to the Line of Actual Control and in Taiwan.

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The drone could be launched from a military cargo aircraft, like C130J or the C17. The Joint Working Group on Air Systems of the India-US DTTI (Defence Technology and Trade Initiative), will oversee the project. It is the inaugural co-development project under the U.S.- India DTTI, aimed at bringing sustained leadership focus to promote collaborative technology exchange and create opportunities for co-production and co-development of future technologies for Indian and US military forces.

The agreement was signed by Brig. Gen. Brian Bruckbauer and Air Vice Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari, both co-chair of the US-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative on 16 July 2021. The agreement outlines collaboration for design, development, demonstration, testing and evaluation of systems to co-develop an ALUAV Prototype.

The project is valued at more than $22 million with costs shared equally, and marks the largest-ever defence Research, Development, Test and Evaluation collaboration between the United States and India. The objectives are the Design, Development, Demonstration, Test and Evaluation of technologies including physical hardware such as small UAVs, avionics, payload power, propulsion, and launch systems through prototyping that meet the operational requirements of the Indian and U.S. Air Forces.

Under DTTI, Joint Working Groups on land, naval, air, and aircraft carrier technologies have been established to focus on mutually agreed projects in respective domains.

The two countries have also inked key defence and security pacts over the past few years, including the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016 that allows their militaries to use each other’s bases for repair and replenishment of supplies as well as provides for deeper cooperation.

The two sides have also signed COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) in 2018 that provides for interoperability between the two militaries and the sale of high-end technology from the US to India.

In October last year, India and the US sealed the BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement) agreement to further boost bilateral defence ties.

Clarity Sought on Predator Drones

India has sought “more clarity” from the United States about the price fixation, maintenance and transfer of technology in the proposed $3 billion (around Rs 22,000 crore) deal to acquire armed MQ-9B Predator drones before finalising the deal. India plans to buy 30 armed drones, which are designed for long-range precision strikes against hostile targets on land and sea, from the US.

The Indian government finalised the plan to acquire these 30 drones, also known as SeaGuardian or SkyGuardian remotely-piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) to strengthen its long-range unmanned lethal capabilities. The army, navy and Indian Air Force (IAF) are to get 10 drones each, with different payloads to hunt and destroy targets over land and sea, the report saidt.

Once the project gets the AoN from the DAC, India will issue an actionable LoR (letter of request) to the US government. The final contract would be signed after the US responds with a letter of offer and acceptance and notifies US Congress.

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The Biden presidency will have to deal with the most important strategic challenge of the times – the belligerence of China. The appointment of an Indo-Pacific coordinator signals the continued commitment of the new administration to managing China’s ambitions and investing in regional partnerships in Asia – including with India. But this will be accompanied by Washington’s need to keep up a working relationship with Beijing. Given the relatively bipartisan support for the relationship with India, New Delhi should not be overly concerned about the tactical ebbs and flows in Washington’s policy – for the strategic convergence between the two is unmistakable.

Despite concerns that may be expressed about what has come to be seen as India’s democratic backsliding, Biden is likely to invest in the India partnership across the realm of defence, economy, technology, and climate – and perhaps even make a trip to India in the first half of his term.

Biden’s Core Team

While Biden’s nominees to head the state and defence departments and the CIA are all well-known individuals, their depositions before Senate committees a day before the inauguration give an insight into the new administration’s thinking.

Secretary of State nominee Anthony Blinken listed the most pressing challenges as rising nationalism, receding democracy, growing rivalry from “China, and Russia and other authoritarian states, mounting a threat to a stable and open international system”. He also noted “a technological revolution” was reshaping our lives. If the US doesn’t lead, he said, “there can be only two outcomes: another nation will step in or none will, and chaos shall ensue”.

On specifics, Blinken argued the US must defeat Covid-19, out-compete China and take the lead in tackling climate change.

Blinken also singled out democracy and human rights as central to the Biden administration’s global outreach. Thus overall, while India would be happy with the tone and tenor on China, though what the new China containment strategy will be is still unclear.

The defence secretary-designate, Gen. Lloyd Austin (Retd), talked about India’s near western neighbourhood. While he reiterated the US resolve to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, he qualified it, as Trump avoided doing, by saying safeguarding the gains in women’s rights, etc, must be a precondition to a final settlement. On Pakistan, he seemed to regress to old formulations like underscoring its importance to Afghan peace and regional stability.

The new approach to foreign policy was articulated most consistently over the last year and more by Jake Sullivan, one of Biden’s closest associates, who has been designated as the new national security adviser. A report issued by Washington’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last fall, which was co-authored by Sullivan, gives some insights into the new thinking.

The report points to the overreach of American foreign policy in recent decades and proposes a “less ambitious” foreign policy. The Carnegie report notes that “There is no evidence America’s middle class will rally behind efforts aimed at restoring US primacy in a unipolar world, escalating a new Cold War with China, or waging a cosmic struggle between the world’s democracies and authoritarian governments.”

Biden’s team took charge with the recognition that the expansive globalist ambitions of the American foreign policy establishment have lost much domestic political support.

Biden’s Immediate Actions

For a start, Biden’s priorities were focused on managing the raging COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed 400,000 lives in the US, an economic crisis and a deeply polarised society and politics as was witnessed during the siege of the US Capitol in January.

President Biden’s 17 acts of rolling back prominent Trump policies on the very first day could send some awkward signals about the way the new administration may view the outcome of the last four years of US policies.

Biden’s first actions as president were sharply aimed at sweeping aside former President Donald Trump’s pandemic response, reversing his environmental agenda, tearing down his anti-immigration policies, bolstering the teetering economic recovery and restoring federal efforts to promote diversity.

Immediately after taking over, Biden executive order that will eventually provide relief and citizenship to migrants who have no legal documents would benefit five lakh Indian beneficiaries.

Most expect a return to the pre-Trump era with the US playing a more active role in world dynamics. Secretary of State nominee Anthony Blinken said that India had been a “bipartisan success story” of successive administrations, and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has also been batting for stronger Indo-US ties. Biden himself is a vocal proponent of friendly ties with India and has been a familiar face in New Delhi since his days as the Vice-President under Barack Obama.

India will continue to keep a close watch on Biden and his State Department nominees who might raise human rights concerns, after the comparatively less intrusive Trump administration.

China Policy

Social dynamics of the American society and the weakening US economy could prevent Biden from playing any hard options against China on issues such as Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Biden administration has displayed a bold intent by refusing to be intimidated by China over Taiwan – the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was sent to the South China Sea to promote ‘freedom of the seas’.

It is unlikely that Biden will dilute the high status that Trump accorded to India in his strategic calculus for the Indo Pacific in the containment of China. Convergence of Indo-US interests has not been disturbed by Trump’s exit.

Indo-Pacific Policy

On its way out of power, the Trump administration, on 13 January, declassified a Indo-Pacific policy it evolved and shaped during its time in office to reveal broad and tough measures to contain China, including “accelerating India’s rise,” through diplomatic, military, and intelligence support.

Broad outlines of the policy were always known, but the decision to reveal it in detail in the turbulent waning days of the Trump dispensation even though the declassification was scheduled for 2042, came as a surprise even amid the toxic pathology between Washington and Beijing over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Public disclosure of the policy will put pressure on the incoming Biden dispensation to stay on course with an evolving US-China-India policy that has progressively gotten tougher on Beijing.

The ten-page document, revealed during heightened tensions between India and China amid a continuing border stand-off, states that enhanced US assistance and intelligence sharing should aid New Delhi in key areas of conflict with Beijing, including over border disputes and water rights.

It outlines the US decision to “offer support to #India – through diplomatic, military and intelligence channels to help address continental challenges such as border dispute with China and access to water, including the Brahmaputra and other rivers facing diversion by China.”

“A strong India, in cooperation with like-minded countries, would act as a counter-balance to China,” the document states.

Outlining Washington’s desired outcomes, that policy seeks that “India’s preferred partner in security issues is the United States” and “India maintains the capacity to counter border provocations by China,” and “India remains pre-eminent in South Asia and takes the leading role in maintaining Indian Ocean Security.”

During its four years in office, the Trump administration’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific theater was vigorous, and the pandemic, which the Trump administration blames on China, appears to have accelerated it beyond its initial moves in 2018, when it renamed US Pacific Command as the Indo-Pacific Command in a signal it was bringing New Delhi into the security loop.

The US is fully aware of this and of India’s significance in the Indo Pacific strategy. Biden is unlikely to slow down the momentum that the Quadrilateral of nations involving Japan, Australia, India and the US, has gathered towards realisation of shared concerns and formulation of strategic intent against an aggressive China.

Pakistan

During the Trump era, de-hyphenation of Pakistan from India became a reality. Ties between the US and Pakistan may take off once again. The new US defence secretary, in his confirmation hearing with the American Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed the need for engaging with the Pakistan military. Pakistan’s geostrategic location gives it out-of-proportion strategic stakes. Pakistan has moved closer to China but US-Pak mutual interests have not changed. The US needs Pakistan for its Afghanistan policy, which will contribute towards an eventual final withdrawal. On the other hand, Pakistan needs US support for its economy.

Middle East

The Middle East and Asia are the two foreign policy theatres which will test Biden. Biden has shown signs of reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran and reconsidering sanctions. Bringing back Iran to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will involve a number of steps, including rebuilding the trust with the Iranian leadership that got severely hit after the decision taken by the Trump administration to withdraw from the nuclear deal which was followed by the 2020 assassination of Qasem Soleimani.

Though there is little scope for a complete revision in the overall Middle East strategy, a withdrawal of support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen is expected as the situation has caused a humanitarian crisis and embarrassment to the US. Facilitated by the Trump administration, the accords between Israel and Bahrain, and Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) carry some weight, but there is little expectation of a major breakthrough on thorny issues like Israel-Palestine.

India’s interests are primarily the opening of Iran’s energy supplies, the rights on development and usage of Chabahar, stability of the Gulf nations where the large Indian diaspora resides and a general absence of violence.

Russia

India’s immediate concern is to see that the S-400 air defence system deal with Russia goes through. It remains contentious in US eyes with no certainty about application of sanctions under Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The US imposed sanctions on Turkey recently under the CAATSA for the purchase of S-400 missile defences from Russia.

Top American officials have been taking a “pragmatic view” on the issue. India cannot wish away overnight the fact that it has huge dependency on Russia. So whether the Biden administration imposes sanctions or not India has to build its capability. Ultimately India will take decisions based on its own strategic interests.

Delhi’s Expectations

New Delhi is looking at “five baskets” of engagement: Strategic, environment, energy and climate change, digital and IT, education and health care.

According to Evan Osnos’s biography of Biden, he was one of the key advocates of strengthening the Indo-US partnership, especially in strategic areas.

With about 2 lakh Indian students in the US and the Trump administration’s progressively hardening line on visas, Delhi will look towards easing of norms for those aspiring to study and work there.

The US and India see each other as key strategic partners and analysts expect the Indo-US relations to grow closer and become less strained. With the coalition against China likely to persist, America’s ties with India and other Pacific nations, including Japan and Australia, may experience a further boost.

The major policy changes India is hoping for are in terms of software exports, H1 visa policy, minimum compensation for engineers (via which Trump tried discouraging hiring Indian IT professionals). Bilateral trade between the two countries was at $88.75 billion in 2019-20. In 2019, the US was the largest goods export market (17% share) for India and, in terms of goods import supplier, it was the third largest. In April-September 2020, the US was the second biggest source of FDI for India. It’s likely that higher portfolio investments influenced by federal rates will flow into India.

With India focusing on becoming a manufacturing hub, there might be a rise in US funding influx and India would hopefully become the alternative choice.

Defence Cooperation

A day after US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke for the first time with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on 29 January, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters at a news conference, “The Secretary made it very clear that we’re going to remain committed to a strong US-India bilateral relationship.”  During his conversation with Singh on Wednesday, Austin pledged to work collaboratively with India to sustain the progress in the bilateral defence relationship, the Pentagon said earlier.

“During the call, Secretary Austin emphasised the Department’s commitment to the US-India Major Defence Partnership, observing that it is built upon shared values and a common interest in ensuring the Indo-Pacific region remains free and open,” Kirby said.

The Indo-US defence ties have been on an upswing in the last few years and in June 2016, the US had designated India a “Major Defence Partner”.

The two countries have also inked key defence and security pacts over the past few years, including the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016 that allows their militaries use each other’s bases for repair and replenishment of supplies as well as provides for deeper cooperation.

The two sides have also signed COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) in 2018 that provides for interoperability between the two militaries and provides for sale of high end technology from the US to India.

Comments

The Trump years have seen two important developments in India-US relations. One is the sharpening tensions on trade and the other is the deepening defence and security cooperation. The Biden moment offers the opportunity for Delhi to overcome the bilateral differences on trade and elevate defence cooperation to a higher level.

The need to take the Indo-US security-defence relationship to the next level is apparent to sober thinkers in both nations but the obstacles to it are not insignificant. There is no guarantee that the US-India positive trajectory will continue.

An essay published earlier this month by Joshua T. White, a leading scholar with the Brookings Institution, details the concerns on the American side. President Joe Biden will have to deal with apprehensions about India’s fiscal limitations, its ties with Russia, its “ponderous response” to Chinese provocations on its border, and its “drift toward illiberal majoritarian politics”. In addition, writes White, the Biden administration will likely seek, for good reason, to rebalance the bilateral relationship away from a disproportionate focus on security issues in order to address a wider array of topics including global health, energy and climate change, and technology cooperation.

On the Indian domestic front, prime minister Narendra Modi will have to contend with the long-held view that Democratic administrations are prone to hyphenating India and Pakistan, do not walk the tough talk on China, indulge in rank identity politics which they expect other nations including their allies to emulate, and lecture New Delhi on human rights, liberalism and the environment without accounting for an Indian exceptionalism, which has been in the forefront of pushing back against communitarian discourses. These are the challenges that both countries have to overcome, respectively, if they are serious about containing the rise and rise of China.

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The aim of the DTTI Group is to bring sustained leadership focus to the bilateral defence trade relationship and create opportunities for co-production and co-development of defense equipment. Four joint working groups focused on land, naval, air and aircraft carrier technologies have been established under DTTI to promote mutually-agreed projects within their domains.

Since the last DTTI Group meeting in October 2019, a DTTI Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the identification and development of cooperative projects under DTTI has been completed. The SOP will serve as the framework for DTTI and allow both sides to reach and document a mutual understanding on how to define and achieve success.

Background

Earlier, the US and India had signed a “Joint Statement of Intent” (SoI), on 24 October 2019, that formalised their intention to co-develop a range of cutting-edge warfighting technologies and systems for their militaries.

ALSO READ: INDIA – U.S.: Indo-US Defence Cooperation Enters New Phase

The agreement for all practical purposes superseded the six co-development projects announced in 2015, but which were never concluded, under the US-India DTTI. DTTI was a narrow, government-focused approach. Both sides have realised that joint development projects should be piloted by defence industry on both sides, while the Pentagon and Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) oversee progress and deals with regulatory roadblocks that may arise.

DTTI Forum

Seven American and 20 Indian defence firms attended the new “DTTI Industry Collaboration Forum”, where the agreement and the DTTI Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was signed on 25 October 2019.

The DTTI Industry Collaboration Forum will provide a standing mechanism for developing and sustaining an India-US industry dialogue on defence technological and industrial cooperation and to allow appropriate industry recommendations to be provided to the India-US DTTI Group.

In addition, the DTTI SOI, declared the joint intent to “strengthen our dialogue on defence technology cooperation by pursuing detailed planning and making measurable progress” on several specific DTTI projects.

ALSO READ: Editorial: Towards a Comprehensive Indo-US Strategic Partnership

The SOP will help identify and develop cooperative projects under DTTI, allowing both sides to reach and document a mutual understanding on how to define and achieve success.

New Projects

Projects which have been dropped from the 2015 DTTI list include:

•             Co-development of Raven micro-UAS.

•             Mission-specific interiors for C-130J Super Hercules aircraft.

•             A mobile electric-hybrid power source.

•             Protective clothing for soldiers in a nuclear contaminated battlefield.

During the 24 October DTTI meeting, both nations agreed to co-develop three specific projects in the near-term, two in the mid-term and two long-term projects. Lord clarified that “near-term” meant about six months.

Near Term. Near term projects agreed were:

•             Air-launched unmanned airborne systems (UAS), which is a drone swarm that is launched from an aircraft to overwhelm enemy defences.

•             Intelligence, surveillance, targeting and reconnaissance (ISTAR), which is command and control software that enables coherent battlefield command.

•             Light weight small arms technology involves building rifles, carbines and machine guns from lightweight polymer cast material with light-weight ammunition cast from plastic, to reduce weight.

Mid-term. Mid-term projects were:

•             Sea Link Advanced Analysis is a maritime domain awareness related software project to analyse shipping passing through an area, such as the Indian Ocean, and differentiates innocent commercial shipping from hostile warships.

•             Virtual Augmented Mixed Reality for Aircraft Maintenance (VAMRAM) is a teaching aid for technicians learning how to maintain a combat aircraft.

Long Term. Long term projects were

•             Terrain Shaping Obstacles involves slowing enemy manoeuvre forces by increasing the lethality of traditional obstacles like mines and barbed wire.

•             Counter UAS Rocket Artillery and Mortar or CU-RAM involves developing highly accurate weapons systems to physically neutralise enemy drones or drone swarms.

In announcing the co-development of “air-launched, small, unmanned airborne systems (UAS)”, the choice of products and technologies shows a new approach to DTTI and recognises that the Indian partner must bring credible technological capability to the table.

Similarly, it was decided to co-develop a “Virtual Augmented Mixed Reality” platform for teaching aircraft maintenance because several Indian start-ups have already developed VAR technology.

Aircraft Carrier Technology

Lord explained there is far more US-India cooperation than the seven projects specified in the Joint Statement of Intent. “Aircraft carrier technology cooperation (ACTC) is one of the key areas that we are looking at. It is not on the Statement of Intent, but all projects are not mentioned there”, she said.

ACTC is less about incorporating US systems and platforms into India’s next indigenous aircraft carrier, and more about learning from the world’s premier aircraft carrier operator – the US Navy.

Lessons From Earlier DTTI Projects

With the exception of aircraft carrier cooperation, a key reason for failure of earlier DTTI projects was that, in entering co-development projects, New Delhi and Washington had divergent motivations, with neither side focused on co-developing usable products.

The jet engine technology project, for which both sides constituted a joint working group (JWG) in 2015, had been suspended because both sides could not come to an understanding of what exportable technology would be useful to the Indians. And the US side ran into a challenge in terms of the US export control.

Moreover, US entities were masters of aero engine technologies, while Indian scientists and technologists were struggling to develop the Kaveri jet engine. The Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) wanted US solutions for unsolved technology challenges, such as high temperature alloys and single crystal blades for the “hot end” of the Kaveri.

US engine makers like Pratt & Whitney or General Electric, would never be prepared to part with intellectual property (IP) and hot-end technology that had cost billions to develop over decades. Nor would Washington grant export control licences for critical engine technology.

Americans would possible leverage manufacturing blueprints for building engines in India as part of their fighter bids in on-going procurements for the Indian Air Force and Navy. That would provide a controversial back door into India’s aircraft procurement.

Comments

The enabling agreements – GSOMIA, LEMOA, COMCASA and BECA have been signed. Signing of GSOMIA and up-gradation of India to the STA-Tier-1 status for trade by the US provides a framework for exchange and protection of classified military information between the U.S industry and the public and private Indian defence companies. Enhanced bilateral exercises, which over the years have increased in scope and complexity have enabled a better understanding of each other’s capabilities and limitations. All these steps provide greater avenues to identify and execute meaningful projects under DTTI.

A Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) to harmonize the processes for identification, development, and execution of projects under the DTTI has been formulated and was ratified last year. The inclusion of Indian private industries and fostering the power of innovators has been a major step in the right direction. Formation and eventual rationalisation of Joint Working Groups (JWGs) has happened over the past few years. JWGs, which are now service-specific, has identified around eight to ten projects each, which will be executed under the umbrella of DTTI. A process of dovetailing the products developed through DTTI in the India defence procurement process has also been formalised by the inclusion of two paragraphs (para 129 regarding co-development and para 130 co-production) in the draft Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020.

However, as per the draft DAP, ‘such cases will be progressed under an IGA/specific Project Agreement after clearance from the AoN (Acceptance of Necessity) according to authority based on the ultimate estimated cost of the project.’

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