The United States to Sell Anti Submarine Choppers to India
The United States has been alarmed by China’s growing interest in the Indian Ocean, as it becomes a global naval power. The Indian and US observers have designed a strategy to check the growing influence of China.
The United States has approved the sale of 24 MH-60R helicopters to India. The move is seen as a significant step towards strengthening the strategic bond between India and the United States. It will also boost the US emerging ally’s firepower to target China submarines, as China is expanding her base in the Indian Ocean. It will also help India to tighten its grip over Pakistan.
India has submitted the request to buy MH-60R helicopters popularly known as Romeo to the United States late last year. The State Department has recently said that it is going to inform the US Congress as legally needed, that it is giving the green signal to India to buy the 24 such helicopters worth a total of $2.6 billion.
The State Department in a statement said, “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to strengthen the US-Indian strategic relationship and to improve the security of a major defensive partner”.
In the Statement, they have called India “a major defensive partner which continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia region”.
The MH-60R helicopters, which are manufactured by Lockheed Martin, are capable of hunting submarines as well as knocking down ships and conducting search and rescue operations at sea at the time of emergency. The Romeos will also replace India’s aging fleet of British made Sea King helicopters.
India has an estranged relationship with the United States since the Cold War, but now has emerged as one of the leading defense partner of United States with the common interests of the world’s two largest democracies and their concerns over rising China and Islamist extremism patronized by Pakistan.
The United States has been alarmed by China’s growing interest in the Indian Ocean, as it becomes a global naval power. The Indian and US observers have designed a strategy to check the growing influence of China. As China has been increasing the number of naval bases in the Indian Ocean, most popular among the naval bases is the Gwadar Port, which China is developing with the help of India’s historic rival Pakistan.
Indian naval planners have been following a doctrine to ensure freedom of movement throughout the Indian Ocean, stretching from the Strait of Hormuz to the Strait of Malacca. The lending of the Anti Submarine Helicopter by the US will, therefore, help India to check on the movement of its most hostile neighbors.