India and the United States have signed a project agreement for Air-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (ALUAV), an official statement said on Friday. The agreement was signed on July 30 between the Ministry of Defence and the US department of defence under the joint working group air systems in defence technology and trade initiative (DTTI), the statement said.
The main aim of DTTI is to bring sustained leadership focus to promote collaborative technology exchange and create opportunities for co-production and co-development of future technologies for Indian and US military forces. Under DTTI, Joint Working Groups on land, naval, air and aircraft carrier technologies have been established for focus on mutually agreed projects in respective domains.
The agreement was signed by the co-chairs of the DTTI’s joint working group on-air systems, the Indian Air Force’s assistant chief of air staff for planning, Air Vice Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari, and the US Air Force’s head of the Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate, Brigadier General Brian R Bruckbauer.
The research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) memorandum of cooperation between India’s defence ministry and the US defence department covers the ALUAV project. According to the press statement, it was first signed in January 2006 and then renewed in January 2015. The agreement is a key step toward strengthening defence technology collaboration between the two countries by allowing them to work together on defence equipment development, the statement said.
According to the release, the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) at DRDO and the Aerospace Systems Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), along with the Indian and US air forces are the principal organisations for the execution of the project agreement.
