According to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the US-India jet engine agreement is groundbreaking

The United States Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, praised the “great relationship” with India and told Congress that the India-US agreement to jointly build fighter jet engines for the Indian Air Force is groundbreaking.

The momentous agreement was revealed in June of last year, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic official state visit to the US.

In order to jointly develop F-414 fighter jet engines in India, General Electric (GE) and Hindustan Aeronautics signed a memorandum of understanding.

Tejas light combat aircraft Mk2 will be powered by GE Aerospace’s F414 engines, which will be co-produced in India in accordance with the agreement.

Austin said that the US and India had a “great relationship” before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday.

“We have made it possible for India to manufacture jet engines and jet weapons locally.” That is rather groundbreaking. That will give them a great deal of capability. Additionally, we and India are manufacturing an armored vehicle together,” he said.

When you put them all up, Austin said, “It’s probably more than we’ve seen happen in that region in a very, very long time.”