India, US widen naval cooperation; submarine testing facility on cards

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 25

India and the United States are looking to expand cooperation in the maritime domain, including having a new testing facility for naval submarines. Separately, New Delhi has made an addition to its existing list of military liaison officers stationed in the US.

A statement of the Ministry of Defence said during the ongoing visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to the US, an MoU was signed between India and US regarding the deployment of liaison officers.

“India shall be accordingly deploying the first Liaison Officer to the Headquarters Special Operations Command in Florida, US,” the statement added.

The Indian Navy already has a liaison officer at the US Central Command headquartered at Bahrain. The US has its officer at the Indian Navy’s information fusion centre headquartered at Gurugram, near New Delhi.

Ely Ratner, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs in the US Department of Defense, wrote post on X: “I signed a liaison officer agreement to strengthen the ever-growing ties between US and Indian armed forces. The DoD looks forward to hosting Indian officers at US commands.”

Meanwhile, India shall deploy Indian Navy personnel in multi-nation Combined Task Force ‘CTF 150’ headquarters at Bahrain next year. The Ministry of Defence today said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited a technically-advanced water tunnel facility for testing submarines, torpedoes, naval surface ships and propellers, at Memphis, Tennessee.

“The discussions intend to support the ongoing proposal for establishment of similar facility for indigenous design and development in India,” it added. Rajnath had also met his US counterpart Llyod Austin. The US DoD described the meet quoting Austin saying: “We share a vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Austin added: “We’re expanding our defence industrial ties and working to coproduce more capabilities and strengthen supply chain resilience.” India-US have increased operational cooperation across all domains. “The Indian navy remains an important security provider in the Indian Ocean,” Austin said.

Both ministers appreciated the progress made in operationalising the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness, a Quad initiative and lauded the ongoing efforts by India to enhance the maritime domain awareness for the partners in the Indian Ocean Region. Next month, the two sides will be hosting the ‘INDUS X’ silicon valley summit in the US. The ‘INDUS X’ stands for India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X).

It aims to establish the defence innovation bridge between the two countries. It works with start-ups, industry, academia and governments, accelerating the adoption of cutting-edge technologies and enhancing war-fighting capabilities of both sides.