India analyst Saurav Jha wrote an article in UIP Asia to comment the recent joint military exercise of the US and India.
The author thinks that beyond the rhetoric of interoperability, such exercise serve as a venue for the United States to showcase its defense technology to Indians looking for diversify their sources of military equipment. The US pitch focuses on technologies that could allow India to counter China's military development.
The joint exercises are happening at a time when the Indian Army has issued requests for proposals for light tanks and tank destroyers, both tracked and wheeled. A sudden requirement for these vehicles has apparently arisen over a need to counter Chinese moves along certain stretches of the disputed India-China border, using armored vehicles nimble enough to be deployed in mountainous terrain.
U.S. defense contractors see India as a huge market for a number of niche products in which the United States is clearly a world leader. Moreover, they do not need to spend time underlining the fact that China already has access to a number of Russian developments, and buying the same may not therefore give India an edge.
On the other hand, the Western embargo on weapons sales to China since 1989 has ensured that China will not have anything comparable to the latest U.S. systems to which India is now being granted access, barring Chinese espionage of course.
The Indians, however, remain prudent in such matters. They will certainly not jeopardize their longstanding relationship with the Russians, now that both nations have extended their military-technical collaboration till 2021 and are currently engaged in over 200 joint development projects.
More pictures of the joint military exercise:http://forum.globaltimes.cn/forum/showthread.php?t=7282
The author thinks that beyond the rhetoric of interoperability, such exercise serve as a venue for the United States to showcase its defense technology to Indians looking for diversify their sources of military equipment. The US pitch focuses on technologies that could allow India to counter China's military development.
The joint exercises are happening at a time when the Indian Army has issued requests for proposals for light tanks and tank destroyers, both tracked and wheeled. A sudden requirement for these vehicles has apparently arisen over a need to counter Chinese moves along certain stretches of the disputed India-China border, using armored vehicles nimble enough to be deployed in mountainous terrain.
U.S. defense contractors see India as a huge market for a number of niche products in which the United States is clearly a world leader. Moreover, they do not need to spend time underlining the fact that China already has access to a number of Russian developments, and buying the same may not therefore give India an edge.
On the other hand, the Western embargo on weapons sales to China since 1989 has ensured that China will not have anything comparable to the latest U.S. systems to which India is now being granted access, barring Chinese espionage of course.
The Indians, however, remain prudent in such matters. They will certainly not jeopardize their longstanding relationship with the Russians, now that both nations have extended their military-technical collaboration till 2021 and are currently engaged in over 200 joint development projects.
More pictures of the joint military exercise:http://forum.globaltimes.cn/forum/showthread.php?t=7282
