Indo-US arms deal

Well finally an Indo-US arms deal.

Sign of times ahead ? How does the Forum vote ?

WASHINGTON: India agreed on Wednesday to buy eight Raytheon long-range, weapon-locating radars in the first major US-Indian weapons deal in more than 10 years, the US said.

The defense department termed the sale a historic move underlining improving bilateral ties in a security environment reshaped by the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

India, one of the first countries to ally itself with the US-led war on terror, has long been a buyer of Russian and British military equipment.

The package, worth up to $146 million if all options are exercised, consists of eight counter-battery AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder radar systems plus advanced communications and support equipment, training and logistics services, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

The radar sets are designed to pinpoint long-range mortars, artillery and rocket launchers after tracking a shell for only a few seconds.

The system then relays precise information for counterfire, tracking, correcting and improving the counter-barrage as it is under way, according to the supplier, Thales Raytheon Systems Corp of El Segundo, California, a joint venture of Raytheon and Thales Group of France.

A team from the Indian Army and the defense ministry wrapped up details of the deal in Washington over the past several days, a Pentagon announcement said, terming it the first US government military sale to India in more than a decade. Pentagon officials could not say when the last such deal took place.

India, which has fought three border wars with Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947 and one with China in 1962, will have no trouble absorbing the radar sets into its armed forces, the Pentagon told Congress on February 25.

“This sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US by helping to improve the security of a country that has been and continues to be a force for political stability and economic progress in South Asia,” the announcement said on Wednesday.

India’s early support for the US-led war on terror “has strengthened the bonds between the two countries,” said Teresita Schaffer, who heads the South Asia program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research group.