India and the United States had agreed on a draft "milestone" defense acquisition and servicing agreement, which would pave the way for Indian military purchases from the US, a senior US military official said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The agreement would also enhance US-India military "interoperability" and led to closer relationship between defense labs in the two countries, Alan Volknan, visiting director on international cooperation of the US Department of Defense was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India (PTI).
Volknan, who is heading a 12-member US team for the two-day meeting of the Indo-US Joint Technical Group on Defense Production and Research which concluded here on Wednesday, also noted that India had proposed to cooperate with the US in developing the naval variant of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), a model India has been developing indigenously for more than adecade and was claimed to the be world's smallest fighter plane.
New Delhi required the US know-how particularly in developing vertical takeoff and landing technology, Volknan said, adding that the US agreed to "actively consider" the Indian proposal. India and the US last month agreed on a 140-million-dollar deal of Indian acquisition of US AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder Weapon Locating Radar System, the first arms deal between the two governments in nearly four decades.
The US had also agreed to consider cooperating with India in the development of the LAC by supplying the GE-404 engines urgently needed by India.
Volknan also agreed to send an American multi-service delegation for a tour of Indian defense labs to identify areas of cooperation, the PTI quoted US officials as saying.
This was the fourth meeting of the Joint Working Group and the first since 1998, when the US freezed its military ties with India following New Delhi's decision to conduct nuclear tests, the PTI noted.
(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2002)
