In a significant development, India and the U.S. announced cooperation on co-production of U.S. sonobuoys for Undersea Domain Awareness (UDA) for the Indian Navy, a high-end technology that allows tracking submarines in the deep seas and oceans.
DETAILS:
“Welcoming the advancement of discussions between Ultra Maritime (UM) and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) to enhance undersea domain awareness through a first-of-its-kind partnership on co-production of U.S. sonobuoys in support of the U.S. and Indian defence industrial bases,” said a fact sheet ‘The U.S. and India Committed to Strengthening Strategic Technology Partnership’ issued on January 6 at the end of U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s visit to India on the aspect of deepening defence innovation and industrial cooperation.
INTEROPERABILITY:
Highlighting the aspect of interoperability, a key focus area, Rear Admiral Mark Kenny (Retd), Senior Vice President at UM for Strategy and Business Development, said: “The UM sonobuoys co-produced in India are interchangeable and interoperable between U.S. Navy, Indian Navy and allied P-8, MH-60R and the MQ-9B Sea Guardian aircraft.”
SIGNIFICANCE:
This is particularly significant as India has over the years acquired a series of military platforms from the U.S. that are also operated by other countries in the region, especially Australia and Japan, all four of which comprise the Quad grouping and also hold the Malabar naval exercise.
Indian Navy operates the P-8I long range maritime patrol aircraft, is inducting the MH-60R multi-role helicopters and has two MQ-9A armed High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems on lease and signed a $3.5 bn contract in October 2024 for 31 MQ-9B – 15 Sea Guardians for the Indian Navy and 16 Sky Guardians, eight each for the Army and Air Force, with deliveries to begin from January 2029.
OTHER RELATED NEWS:
American firm General Atomics and Indian start-up 114ai are jointly working on an AI-enabled multi-domain situational awareness product to support joint all-domain command and control.
Annoying_Rooster on
India’s geopolitical interest were always interesting to me. Their primary adversary obviously being Pakistan, while China they have an on and off relationship that they’d be good neighbors to beansquabbling in the Himalayans. And when things are on the up between them and China, the US tries to offer a carrot to entice India I guess in case in the future things go tits up with China, then they can look to the US for diplomatic and material support.
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Submission Statement:
In a significant development, India and the U.S. announced cooperation on co-production of U.S. sonobuoys for Undersea Domain Awareness (UDA) for the Indian Navy, a high-end technology that allows tracking submarines in the deep seas and oceans.
DETAILS:
“Welcoming the advancement of discussions between Ultra Maritime (UM) and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) to enhance undersea domain awareness through a first-of-its-kind partnership on co-production of U.S. sonobuoys in support of the U.S. and Indian defence industrial bases,” said a fact sheet ‘The U.S. and India Committed to Strengthening Strategic Technology Partnership’ issued on January 6 at the end of U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s visit to India on the aspect of deepening defence innovation and industrial cooperation.
INTEROPERABILITY:
Highlighting the aspect of interoperability, a key focus area, Rear Admiral Mark Kenny (Retd), Senior Vice President at UM for Strategy and Business Development, said: “The UM sonobuoys co-produced in India are interchangeable and interoperable between U.S. Navy, Indian Navy and allied P-8, MH-60R and the MQ-9B Sea Guardian aircraft.”
SIGNIFICANCE:
This is particularly significant as India has over the years acquired a series of military platforms from the U.S. that are also operated by other countries in the region, especially Australia and Japan, all four of which comprise the Quad grouping and also hold the Malabar naval exercise.
Indian Navy operates the P-8I long range maritime patrol aircraft, is inducting the MH-60R multi-role helicopters and has two MQ-9A armed High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems on lease and signed a $3.5 bn contract in October 2024 for 31 MQ-9B – 15 Sea Guardians for the Indian Navy and 16 Sky Guardians, eight each for the Army and Air Force, with deliveries to begin from January 2029.
OTHER RELATED NEWS:
American firm General Atomics and Indian start-up 114ai are jointly working on an AI-enabled multi-domain situational awareness product to support joint all-domain command and control.
India’s geopolitical interest were always interesting to me. Their primary adversary obviously being Pakistan, while China they have an on and off relationship that they’d be good neighbors to beansquabbling in the Himalayans. And when things are on the up between them and China, the US tries to offer a carrot to entice India I guess in case in the future things go tits up with China, then they can look to the US for diplomatic and material support.