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India, US ink $146mn military deal on sophisticated radars

	April 22, 2002

In a landmark development, India will purchase sophisticated weapon-locating radars from the U.S. under the first defence deal between the two countries in more than a decade, writes Rezaul H. Laskar.

The deal was clinched in Washington last week even as reports came in that the navies of the two countries had started joint patrolling of the Malacca Straits, marking yet another step forward in their growing military ties.

The defence ties between the two sides will be further strengthened when General Sunderarajan Padmanabhan begins a weeklong visit to the U.S. on April 22 in his capacity as the chairman of the Indian Chiefs of Staff Committee.

The Pentagon described the U.S.-India arms deal on the radars as “a historic move” that reflected improving relations between the two countries.

Under the Foreign Military Sales agreement signed on April 17 by an Indian delegation led by Ajai Vikram Singh, special secretary in the Indian defence ministry, New Delhi will purchase eight weapon-locating radars. If all options are exercised, the deal could be worth $146 million.

The AN/TPQ-37 radars can detect the location of enemy missile batteries and artillery formations by tracking the trajectory of projectiles fired by them. The enemy gun positions can then be targeted in a counter-barrage.

The U.S. had, however, supplied an earlier version of the radar - the AN/TPQ-36 - to Pakistan in the early 1990s. Defence experts said their sale to India would only help to balance the situation without giving either side any advantage.

In a hearing in the U.S. Congress in February, Pentagon officials had defended the sale of the radars to India.

“This sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security interests of the U.S. 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 Pentagon said.

The radars are likely to be used by India along the 740-km Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, which frequently witnesses artillery duels between Indian and Pakistani forces.

India has been in the market for such radars for more than a decade. It expressed an interest in the AN/TPQ-36, made by California-based Thales Raytheon Systems, in the late 1980s.

The Indian Army stepped up efforts to obtain firefinder radars after Pakistani forces used them to target Indian gun positions during the Kargil border conflict of 1999.

Earlier this year, the U.S. lifted restrictions on military sales to India and Pakistan, imposed in 1998 when the two South Asian rivals conducted nuclear tests.

Historically, India has looked to Russia and Britain for its arms supplies. In recent years, it has also signed major defence deals with France and Israel.

Besides the AN/TPQ-37 radar systems, the Raytheon package includes advanced communications and support equipment, training and logistics services, Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency said.

Meanwhile, the Indian and U.S. navies have begun escorting merchant ships and oil tankers in the waters near the Malacca Straits, the first such military cooperation by the two sides outside the U.N. umbrella.

The decision to start joint patrolling was made at a meeting of the India-U.S. naval executive steering group held in Chennai in February.

The Malabar series of exercises by the two navies, suspended after India’s nuclear tests in 1998, are set to resume in October this year.