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Fighter Aircraft Contract
The India-US deal to jointly produce fighter jet engines for the Indian Air Force is revolutionary, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on Wednesday. The landmark deal was announced last June during the historic Official State Visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US. The General Electric signed a memorandum of understanding with Hindustan Aeronautics to make fighter jet engines for the IAF. Austin told the House Appropriations Subcommittee that the United States has a great relationship with India. We recently have enabled India to produce a jet weapon, a jet engine in India. And that's kind of revolutionary. That will provide a great capability to them. We are also co-producing an armoured vehicle with India," he said. "So, all of these things, when you add them up, are probably more than we have seen happen in that region in a very, very long time, Austin said.
The Biden administration on Tuesday signed off on two new significant arms sales to Taiwan in approvals that are sure to rankle China. The State Department said it had okayed sales worth more than USD 425 million of spare aircraft parts to support Taiwan's fleet of F-16 fighters, C-130 transport planes and other US-supplied weapons systems. The package includes USD 330 million in standard replacement parts and USD 98 million in non-standard equipment along with related accessories and logistics. The sales were announced just weeks after President Joe Biden met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for talks in Indonesia in which China's increasingly aggressive behaviour toward Taiwan was a major issue. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has vowed to reunify the island with the mainland by force, if necessary. It has roundly condemned previous US arms sales to Taiwan as violations of Washington's one-China policy" and is expected to react similarly to Tuesday's ...