Amid jet engine supply delays, India, US ink pact to access resources

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, Aug 23

Amid delay in supplies of jet engines for the Tejas fighter jets from the US, the Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) was inked on Thursday night between India and US. The pact has clauses allowing access to each other’s resources in case supply chain disruptions occur – like the one in case of jet engines.

After the agreement was signed in the US, a statement put out by the US Department of Defence (DoD) on Friday morning said, “The arrangement will enable both countries to acquire the industrial resources they need from one another to resolve unanticipated supply chain disruptions to meet national security needs.”

The pact comes at a time when India’s ambitious indigenous programme—manufacturing the Tejas fighter jet—has been held up due to delays in engines to be supplied by a US firm, General Electric. The pact was inked during the visit of Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who landed in the US on Thursday.

“US and India agree to provide reciprocal priority support for goods and services that promote national defence,” the US DoD said.

Explaining it further, the US DoD said the arrangement commits the US and India to support one another’s priority delivery requests for procurement of critical national defence resources.

“The US will provide India assurances under the US Defense Priorities and Allocations System. India will in turn establish a government-industry Code of Conduct with its industrial base, where Indian firms will voluntarily agree to make every reasonable effort to provide the US priority support.”

The agreement if for bilateral supplies only, meaning any supply – like ammunition—taken from India on priority can be for US  forces alone.

The mechanism under the SOSA strengthens interoperability with US defence trade partners. The Arrangements institute working groups, establish communication mechanisms, streamline DoD processes, and proactively act to allay anticipated supply chain issues in peacetime, emergency, and armed conflict. They are also a useful tool in developing investment strategies to ensure redundancy and security.

India is the eighteenth SOSA partner of the US, other partners include Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Vic Ramdass, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, signed it on behalf of the US, while Samir Kumar Sinha, Additional Secretary and Director General Acquisitions in the MoD signed on behalf of India.