New Delhi: In the wake of the four-day conflict which saw India scoring a major victory and destroying terrorist camps in Pakistan and countering the high end equipment used by China, in Operation Sindoor, India is looking for boosting its arsenal from the US. India has moved fast with its suppliers, of which the US appears to be the most critical, to maintain not just an edge over Pakistan but to develop an effective counter to Chinese military systems.
So, India awaits a green signal from the US on key emergency procurements amid growing urgency to replenish and add new weaponry. The recent conflict with Pakistan, it now emerges, has underlined the criticality of the US as a key future supplier.
Of the nine terror targets engaged on the first day of Operation Sindoor, seven were hit by Excalibur precision-guided munitions fired from M777 155 mm light howitzers. India urgently wants more of these GPS-guided munitions, which can hit targets 40 km away with up to 15-20 metre accuracy. India has also made a case for an emergency off-the-shelf purchase of Javelin anti-tank missiles. This is over and above the larger Javelin deal that has been in negotiations for a while and was also mentioned in the Indo-US joint statement during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in February.
While much of the attention has been on negotiations around the Indo-US trade deal, hectic diplomacy is underway on the defence front, particularly to shore up supplies in the current security context. India has got positive assurances from Pentagon to the extent that the US will consider providing immediate supplies from its own military inventory.
In this backdrop, India may need to be flexible on the purchase of six P8I Maritime Patrolling Aircraft. The US has increased its price by about 50% from its original 2021 offer, citing rise in supply chain costs. With Washington unwilling to relent, New Delhi may either have to cough up extra or consider buying just five. This call could get linked to the alacrity with which the US moves on India’s emergency procurement requests.
On the broader side, India would be keen to accelerate some of the important policy shift conversations agreed in February. These relate to aligning arms transfer regulations, especially amending the International Traffic in Arms Regulations working on a Reciprocal Defence Procurement Agreement. Progress on these will put India in a different category, ease the approval process and provide deeper access to the US technology, besides building trust to set up maintenance, spare supplies and in-country repair and overhaul of the US-provided defence systems.
What’s becoming increasingly clear is that while Russian equipment like S400s continue to perform well, Moscow’s dependency on Beijing and, in turn, access to Russian defence industry will require India to build more reliability and depth into the supply chain with the US. The standoff with China on the northern borders revealed utility of the US-made High-Altitude Long Endurance MQ9B Predator drones. The naval versions were on lease with the Navy and the US allowed India to deploy them urgently to carry out surveillance on the China front. This later fast-tracked a long-pending proposal to purchase these UAVs, with India deciding to buy 31 MQ9B Predator drones.
Similarly, Operation Sindoor has underlined importance of M777s, Excalibur munitions and other equipment – all pointing to convert trust into reliability. The challenge will be to do so without getting affected by the uncertainty that has come to surround conversations with the Trump administration.
