US, India Discuss Potential Missile Defence Cooperation : Pentagon
Given the security concerns of India due to having borders / LOC with Pakistan and a LAC with China , India began to establish a formidable Area defence systems against incoming enemy missiles and aircrafts. India is already self sufficient in short and medium range surface to air defensive missiles. However long range missiles will take time. So to fill in the gap , India several years ago had approached US and expressed its desire to acquire a missile defence system from it, particularly the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system popular as THAAD. It also began evaluating the Russian S400 Missile Defence System.
The previous Obama administration was not very forthcoming in sharing its advance missile defence system with India. Then IAF also found out that technicalky the American THAAD System was quite inferior to the Russian System. Following which New Delhi went ahead to procure 5 systens from Russia. India requires around 16+ systems to cover the entire country. So five systems have been ordered from Russia to cover vital areas and the rest will be indigenous system under development.
The Pentagon’s announcement in the 81-page ‘Missile Defence Review’ report was released by US President Donald Trump in view of India placing a Rs 37500 Crores order to purchase S-400 air defence system from Russia. The US was knave enough to not only publicly express its displeasure but also tried to threaten India through its CAATSA law.
India just ignored the comic CAATSA politely and went ahead with the Russian deal. Aghast Congressmen and Senators tried all face saving stunts. They even urged India to make a request fir CAATSA waiver. India has been ignoring all this and now even a team has proceeded to Russia for getting trained on the system. The first of the system us likely to reach India for deployment by end of this year.
Now since USA is desperate to role in India as a vital for of its Indo-Pacific strategy, the Bidden administration seems to be more than inclined to sell its THAAD missiles defence system to India. They are still trying all the trucks available in their books.
“We will deepen our strategic partnership with India and support its leadership role in Indian Ocean security and throughout the broader region,” said the National Security Strategy of the US, which has been mentioned in the Pentagon report.
Noting that the threats posed by offensive missile capabilities are no longer limited to a few regions around the world, the Pentagon in its report said there were now a number of States in South Asia that are developing an advanced and diverse range of ballistic and cruise missile capabilities.
“Within this context, the United States has discussed potential missile defence cooperation with India. This is a natural outgrowth of India’s status as a Major Defence Partner and key element of our Indo-Pacific Strategy,” said the Pentagon report on Thursday.
The report, which identifies missile development projects by Russia and China as major threats to the US, did not give any further details about its potential missile defence cooperation with India.
The Missile Defence Review report said that the cornerstone of US’ security and diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific region is its strong bilateral alliances with Japan, South Korea and Australia, and emerging security relationships with others such as India.
Japan and South Korea are working with the US to build missile defence systems that are increasingly interoperable with American defences and increasingly capable against regional offensive missile threats and coercion.
This cooperation includes bilateral missile defence training exercises with the US.
Australia participates in a trilateral discussion on missile defence with the US and Japan. The US and Australia meet annually to discuss bilateral missile defence cooperation. New areas of focus include joint examination of the challenges posed by advanced missile threats, it said.
