US President Donald Trump said on Thursday (local time) the United States will sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to India, which would join the elite club of countries with state-of-the-art stealth planes.
"Starting this year, we will be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We are also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters," Donald Trump told a joint news conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House. Follow Narendra Modi US visit live updates
Any such move would be a long way off and could face serious obstacles given that India already has deep defence ties with Russia, and the US has been loathe to sell the F-35 to countries where adversaries might steal its technology, news agency Bloomberg reported.
{{/usCountry}}Any such move would be a long way off and could face serious obstacles given that India already has deep defence ties with Russia, and the US has been loathe to sell the F-35 to countries where adversaries might steal its technology, news agency Bloomberg reported.
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It added that a sale would also be complicated by India’s decision in 2018 to buy Russia’s S400 missile defence system. The US had previously scrapped F-35 co-production with Turkey after that country decided to buy the S400 over fears Russia would learn too much about the plane’s technology.
“In our meeting today, the prime minister and I reaffirmed that strong cooperation among the United States, India, Australia and Japan, and it’s crucial really, to maintaining peace and prosperity tranquility, even, in the Indo Pacific,” Donald Trump said.
The US President did not provide a timeline, but foreign military sales, especially for cutting-edge technology like the stealthy F-35 jet, typically take years to work through, news agency Reuters reported.
Addressing the joint news conference after a meeting with Modi, Trump also said the countries had struck an agreement that includes India importing more US oil and gas to shrink the trade deficit between the two countries.
Trump also said Washington and New Delhi will be working together to confront what he called “the threat of radical Islamic terrorism”.
Lockheed Martin, which makes the F-35 jet, did not immediately comment on Trump's ambitions to sell the jets to India.
Foreign military sales like those of the F-35 are considered government-to-government deals where the Pentagon acts as an intermediary between the defense contractor and a foreign government.
India has agreed to buy more than $20 billion of US defence products since 2008. Last year, India agreed to buy 31 MQ-9B SeaGuardian and SkyGuardian drones after deliberations that lasted more than six years.
Reuter, citing the US Congressional Research Service, reported that India is expected to spend more than $200 billion over the next decade to modernise its military.
Lockheed is producing three models of new warplanes for the US military and allies, including Britain, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Belgium.
Trump's announcement also suggests continued confidence in the costliest American weapons system, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp., which has been derided by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and a close Trump adviser.
Last year, the US approved the sale of nearly $4 billion in attack drones, Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs to India, as the Joe Biden administration looks to chip away at the country’s long-time defence relationship with Russia.
Joining Trump's meeting with Modi was SpaceX and Tesla tycoon Elon Musk, who has launched an aggressive effort as Trump's right-hand man to overhaul the US bureaucracy.
Musk also held a one-on-one meeting with Modi earlier Thursday, in an encounter that drew questions over whether the world's richest man was meeting the Indian premier in an official or a business capacity.
(With inputs from agencies)