Hyderabad: President Donald Trump may find it difficult to pronounce ‘Swami Vivekananda’ or ‘Sachin Tendulkar’ with gusto, but he sure sells smart. On Monday, experiencing obvious problems to name one of India’s greatest saints and one of the biggest names in cricket, the former business tycoon unfalteringly confirmed that a military helicopter deal between US and India is indeed in the making.
Looking a wee bit weary after an 8,000-mile-long air journey from Washington to Ahmedabad, Trump delivered a half-an-hour long speech where he lauded India, its civilization, culture, democracy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Motera stadium in front of a huge 1.10 lakh crowd.
Despite the trade deal not fructifying, with $3 billion of expected military hardware deals expected to be inked on Tuesday in New Delhi, the US is positioning itself very well.
With the growing and increasingly belligerent US-China rivalry, India can be the ally that the US can ride on in the choppy Indian Ocean waters. So what better deal than to sell military equipment to India that can be positioned against the Chinese?
The big daddy of the upcoming deals will be 24 MH 60 multi-role Romeo Sikorsky helicopters for the Indian Navy that will also be stationed on warships. Made by US defence major Lockheed Martin, they are among the most powerful and formidable of naval helicopters today. The chopper deal is valued at about $2.6 billion.
It was only last Wednesday that the PM Modi-led Cabinet Committee on Security gave its go-ahead to the buying of 24 MH 60 Sikorsky helicopters.
Read: WATCH: Trump promises $3 bn defence deal, all praises for Modi
But with it, President Trump, besides selling its military hardware and giving a big boost to the country’s military-industrial architecture, is also pitting India against China in the battle of the seas.
The submarine is arguably, the fighting platform that separates the men from the boys in today’s military world. A huge and very vital force-multiplier, the main advantage of a submarine is its ability to prowl the oceans of the world without being detected. In a nuclear war scenario, it adds the deterrent value with its second-strike capability from a place of its choosing.
Of late the Indian Ocean has become a hotbed of buzzing military activity with naval vessels and submarines lurking around much more than ever in the past. The naval presence in the region is largely dominated by vessels of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) which is expanding and modernizing its naval assets at breakneck speed.
The MH-60R is expected to be loaded with two weapon stations for use against ships and submarines. The chopper is specially equipped with lightweight air-launched torpedoes and Hellfire missiles that would fire away at submarines after their detection and location.
PLAN operates 76 submarines compared to India’s 16. A submarine arm race is also taking place in the region with the latest entrants being Bangladesh and Myanmar. While India gifted a submarine to Myanmar very recently, China gave away two submarines to Bangladesh. And that is why the US sale of choppers that specialize in hunting down submarines is very significant.
Also, read: The Indispensable Indo-US partnership
