Biden, Modi announce major deal on fighter jet engines, drones

President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will mark their countries’ growing defense trade partnership Thursday by announcing a landmark deal for General Electric to build military jet engines in India with Hindustan Aeronautics, a state-owned company.

“The U.S.-India defense partnership has been growing stronger through the years, but we’ve now entered really sort of a next generation defense partnership,” a senior administration official told reporters. “This is a trailblazing initiative to manufacture F414 engines in India and will enable greater transfer of U.S. jet engine technology than ever before.”

The agreement, which is subject to congressional review, is a clear sign of closer defense ties between two countries that share concerns about China’s increasing military might. Senior administration officials also highlighted several other areas of increased defense cooperation ahead of Modi’s visit Thursday to the White House for talks with Biden and to attend a state dinner in his honor.

Those include four agreements, one of which is already in force, that will allow U.S. naval vessels to undertake servicing and major repairs at Indian shipyards. The two countries also have created a bilateral forum known as INDUS-X to facilitate joint innovation on defense technologies and accelerate the integration of India’s budding private sector defense industry with the U.S. defense sector.

The two leaders are also expected to announce India’s commitment to buy MQ-98 SeaGuardian drones from U.S. manufacturer General Atomics. “That’s going to substantially grow India’s [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] capability which I think is incredibly important and and useful to them, both ... above their seas and on their borders,” a senior administration official said.

In the non-defense sector, Utah-based Micron Technology is making an investment of more than $800 million that it will use, along with financial support from Indian authorities, to build a $2.75 billion semiconductor assembly and test facility in India, the officials said.

Applied Materials, a semiconductor manufacturing equipment company, will announce a new semiconductor center for commercialization and innovation in India and Lam Research, another semiconductor manufacturing equipment company, will announce a training program for 60,000 Indian engineers, the officials said.

Biden and Modi will also announce “deliverables” in other areas including renewable energy, critical minerals, telecommunications, quantum computing and health care, the officials said. In all of those areas and others, “there is no partner more consequential now and into the future than India,” a senior administration official said.