New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday asked his American counterpart US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to fast-track the delivery of the GE F404 engines for the Tejas fighter aircraft that has been delayed by over two years, ThePrint has learnt. He also urged the US to fast-track the signing of an agreement for the joint production of F414 engines between GE and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
An official statement by the defence minister did not mention these details but Indian government sources said Singh raised both issues during his conversation with Hegseth.
“The delivery of engines is a big issue for us. It has already been delayed. The defence minister told Hegseth that it needed to be delivered on an urgent basis. Our next generation of fighters are to be based on F414, a contract for which has to be concluded and signed early,” one source told ThePrint.
Ministry of Defence (MoD) in its statement said the two leaders discussed a wide canvas of issues ranging from long-term cooperation in the defence sector, including training and military exchanges, to expanding industry collaboration.
They agreed to further build upon the momentum of this critical and mutually beneficial partnership across all its pillars such as interoperability, integration of defence industrial supply chains, logistics sharing, increased joint military exercises and cooperation with other like-minded partners, the statement said. It added that Singh “appreciated the unwavering support extended by the US to India for its fight against terrorism”.
Hegseth invited Singh to the US for an in-person meeting to take the bilateral defence partnership forward.
This was their third telephonic conversation since January this year when Hegseth was confirmed as US Secretary of Defense.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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