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Delhi 'evinces interest' in US missile defence deal
Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No 1 supplier, has been told India may be ready to look into possible US-Indian collaboration on ballistic missile defence, a top company official said on Wednesday.
- Reuters
- Published: 01:04 February 8, 2008
Washington: Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No 1 supplier, has been told India may be ready to look into possible US-Indian collaboration on ballistic missile defence, a top company official said on Wednesday.
"I would not be surprised if over the next couple of months we begin to have some exploratory discussions with various members of the government and with Indian industry," Richard Kirkland, Lockheed Martin's top executive on South Asia, said in a telephone interview.
Indian missile-defence cooperation with the United States could complicate relations with China, Russia and Pakistan.
Until now, India's policy has been to develop its missile shield domestically, closing a potential multibillion-dollar market to Boeing Co, Lockheed, Raytheon Co and Northrop Grumman Corp - the biggest players in the emerging ground, air, sea and space based US missile defence system.
But this may be changing in line with a "watershed" Indian decision made formal last week to buy Lockheed's C-130J military transport aircraft, Kirkland said in a telephone interview.
India signed a deal with the United States on January 31 to buy six C-130Js worth about $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion), a shift from its previous heavy reliance on Russian transport planes.
"This kind of puts us in a new environment," James Clad, deputy assistant US secretary of defence for South and Southeast Asia, said in an interview Tuesday of the C-130J deal. "With this sale, India is telling us it's ready to buy top-quality US equipment on its merits."
More than 50 US companies doing defence-related work are now represented in India, which is shaping up to be one of the world's biggest arms importers, Clad said.
The United States has been eager to boost strategic ties with India as a precaution against China's growing military power.
Nicholas Burns, the No 3 US State Department official, wrote in the November/December issue of the journal Foreign Affairs that in reaching out to India, the United States was betting on democracy and market economics rather than "despotism and state planning", an apparent swipe at communist-ruled China.
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