India, United States, Israel Should Pursue a Defense Innovation Triad.

• Author: Patil, Sameer

The United States and India on Sept. 3 signed an agreement to co-develop air-launched unmanned aerial vehicles as part of the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, a bilateral cooperation mechanism for defense trade and joint technology development. Under the agreement, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory will collaborate with India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and air force for "design, development, demonstration, testing and evaluation of systems" to co-develop the UAV prototype.

Capitalizing on this agreement on air-launched UAVs, the United States and India can advance their shared defense technology goals by involving a close military partner, Israel. If these three like-minded and tech-sawy democracies join hands to bring together their defense innovation communities in Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv and Bengaluru, it will be a crucial step in materializing a new kind of trilateral defense partnership.

The underlying assumption behind this potential collaboration is this: with the breakneck speed of advancements in emerging technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, solo national efforts in developing and adopting them won't go far.

The United States and India commenced defense technology cooperation in 2015 when they renewed the "Framework for the U.S.-India Defense Relationship," a bilateral defense pact. Under this agreement, they explored basic technologies in the beginning, termed as "pathfinder projects." The intent was to harness America's advanced defense industrial base to India's desire to achieve self-reliance in defense technology through the "Make in India" campaign.

But despite their synergies, both countries were unable to make good on this collaboration as they discussed and explored many projects in the next few years, only to abandon them later. Some of the initial projects included the RQ-11B Raven unmanned aerial system, mobile electric hybrid power sources and a digital helmet mounted display system.

Therefore, the present agreement on air-launched UAVs is significant as it marks the first time that both countries appear to have made progress beyond initial deliberations. It leverages the U.S. and Indian governments' defense research establishments to deliver the next-generation combat capability.

Leveraging this progress in bilateral defense technology cooperation, the United States and India must look at ways to achieve more from their partnership.

One way to do...