Arms Americana: US opens military barn door for IndiaAdd to Clippings
Chidanand Rajghatta
[ Tuesday, May 09, 2006 09:48:48 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: In a military and arms sales career spanning three decades, Michael Devers seldom had India on his radar — until 2005. A senior executive with Boeing’s Integrated Defence Systems (IDS), the lesser-known arms division of the giant airplane maker, Devers traveled far and wide– Korea, Japan, Middle-East, Australia -‘ hawking the latest American military wares to US’ allies and friends. But rarely ever to India, which resolutely bought arms from the Moscow, Washington’s Cold War rival, and Europe.
Then one day it began changing. Early last year, a top Boeing executive received a phone call from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s office. The US was going to finally clear the sale of F-16s (made by Boeing’s rival-in-arms Lockheed Martin) to Pakistan. But the Secretary was keen to offer India more advanced F-16s and even newer Boeing-made F/A-18 Super Hornets in keeping with the strategic shift in the region. Was Boeing prepared for that?
“We were all stunned,” another Boeing executive, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the exchanges, recalled. “This is a new generation combat aircraft that we have not sold to our closest allies. Outside the US Navy, no one has it. Yet here was the Secretary asking if we were ready to sell to India and also ready for joint production.” Boeing’s reply was swift: Sure thing.
In mid-March 2005, Rice traveled to New Delhi for what would only later be revealed as a path-breaking visit ‘ of the kind Henry Kissinger made to Beijing in 1970. Amid a raft of issues that would dramatically redefine US strategic interests in Asia, Rice not only sounded out Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the nuclear deal, but also suggested India not be too worried about US supply of F-16s to Pakistan because India could have its pick of US arms from here on.
The US was keen on a whole new security architecture in the region, a goal that was written into a ten-year military pact signed by the two defense establishments in June when Pranab Mukherjee visited Washington.
Two weeks after the Rice visit, Philip Zelikow, her policy advisor in the State Department, summed up the tectonic shift in US policy in the following words: “(The US) goal is to help India become a major world power in the 21st century. We understand fully the implications, including military implications, of that statement.”
The statement was music to the ears for the folks at Boeing, and indeed, every other American arms maker such as Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. It was also the sound of cash registers ringing. Long out of bounds for America’s notorious “military-industrial” complex for a variety of reasons, including sanctions, New Delhi had been fertile stomping ground for Russian and European arms dealers for years. Suddenly, Washington had thrown open the barn door and Americans could get into the scrimmage — with, as some US firms like Boeing believe, far greater traction and advantage.
The reason for US relaxation of arms sales to India is clearly as much commercial as strategic. India’s defense expenditure has climbed steadily over the past few years, current standing at $ 20 billion a year.
Although that’s only a fraction of the $ 460 billion US spends and a quarter of China’s $ 80 billion, it is expected to keep increasing as India looks to fulfill its potential role as a global power. In fact, India’s defense expense is abysmally low when looked at in per capita terms (where Israel is by far the highest).
With each increase in India’s defence budget, there has been a frisson of excitement in the world’s arms bazaar as New Delhi has tried to upgrade its military.
No single item caused more animation in 2005 than the announcement that the Indian Air Force was looking for 126 Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) to supplement its fleet, where the mainstay is the aging and disaster-stricken MiGs. And the ripple reached as far as St.Louis, Missouri, a once-great Midwestern city –home to Boeing’s IDS and the center of its F/A-18 Super Hornet manufacturing facility — that is a pale shadow of its former self. And it was to St Louis that the Indian media from Washington was press-ganged (we joked) last week for a surprising sales pitch.
Sign In
