Biden administration moves forward on India drone sale

Editor’s note: Vivek Raghuvanshi, a journalist and freelancer to Defense News for more than three decades, was jailed in mid-May by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of espionage. The Indian government has released minimal information on his arrest. Sightline Media Group, which owns Defense News, has not seen any evidence to substantiate these charges and repudiates attacks on press freedom.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday approved a nearly $4 billion drone sale to India, a deal that emerged during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last year.

Congress has received the notification for India’s pending purchase of 31 MQ-9B SkyGuardian aircraft made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. The notification triggers a 30-day congressional review period on Capitol Hill.

“The U.S.-India defense partnership has seen significant growth over the past decade,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said a press briefing on Wednesday, noting the sale “offers significant potential to further advance strategic technology cooperation with India and military cooperation in the region.”

The Biden administration has sought to court India as part of its efforts to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region while prying it away from Russia, New Delhi’s leading arms supplier. India also seeks to develop its own indigenous defense-industrial base. A December Congressional Research Service report noted that India is the world’s largest arms importer by value.

In addition to the drone sale, Modi’s visit to Washington in June resulted in a spate of other agreements, such as a deal between General Electric and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. to jointly produce fighter jet engines.

Micron Technology, an American semiconductor firm, also pledged to spend upward of $2.75 billion on construction of an assembly and test facility in India. In addition, the U.S. and India kick-started negotiations for a reciprocal defense procurement arrangement to coordinate the exchange and development of military technology.

In May 2022, the two countries launched the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology to enhance cooperation in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and semiconductors.

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

编者按：维韦克·拉古万什（Vivek Raghuvanshi）是一位为《防务新闻》（Defense News）撰稿三十余年的记者和自由撰稿人，于五月中旬被印度中央调查局以间谍罪名逮捕入狱。印度政府对其逮捕事件的披露信息甚少。《防务新闻》的母公司Sightline Media Group表示，他们尚未发现任何证据支持这些指控，并强烈谴责对新闻自由的攻击。

美国国务院周四批准向印度出售价值近 40 亿美元的无人机，这项交易是在印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪去年访问华盛顿期间达成的。

美国国会已收到印度拟购买31架通用原子航空系统公司生产的MQ-9B“天空卫士”无人机的通知。该通知将启动国会为期30天的审查程序。

美国国务院发言人马修·米勒周三在新闻发布会上表示：“过去十年，美印防务伙伴关系取得了显著发展。”他指出，此次军售“为进一步推进与印度的战略技术合作以及该地区的军事合作提供了巨大潜力”。

拜登政府一直试图拉拢印度，以此作为其在印太地区抗衡中国战略的一部分，同时拉拢印度摆脱对俄罗斯——新德里的主要武器供应国——的依赖。印度也致力于发展自身的国防工业基础。美国国会研究服务处去年12月的一份报告指出，印度是全球最大的武器进口国（按价值计算）。

除了无人机销售之外，莫迪6月份访问华盛顿还促成了一系列其他协议，例如通用电气和印度斯坦航空有限公司联合生产战斗机发动机的协议。

美国半导体公司美光科技也承诺投资超过27.5亿美元在印度建设一座组装和测试工厂。此外，美印两国启动了关于互惠国防采购安排的谈判，旨在协调军事技术的交流与发展。

2022 年 5 月，两国启动了美印关键和新兴技术合作倡议，以加强在人工智能、量子计算和半导体领域的合作。

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。