USA / Indien

India – M777 155mm Light-Weight Towed How­itzers

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2010 – The Defense Secu­ri­ty Coop­er­a­tion Agency noti­fied Con­gress Jan. 22 of a pos­si­ble For­eign Mil­i­tary Sale to India of 145 M777 155mm Light-Weight Towed How­itzers with Laser Iner­tial Artillery Point­ing Sys­tems (LINAPS) and asso­ci­at­ed parts, equip­ment, train­ing and logis­ti­cal sup­port for a com­plete pack­age worth approx­i­mate­ly $647 million.

The Gov­ern­ment of India has request­ed a pos­si­ble sale of 145 M777 155mm Light-Weight Towed How­itzers with Laser Iner­tial Artillery Point­ing Sys­tems (LINAPS), war­ran­ty, spare and repair parts, sup­port and test equip­ment, pub­li­ca­tions and tech­ni­cal doc­u­men­ta­tion, main­te­nance, per­son­nel train­ing and train­ing equip­ment, U.S. Gov­ern­ment and con­trac­tor rep­re­sen­ta­tives’ tech­ni­cal assis­tance, engi­neer­ing and logis­tics sup­port ser­vices, and oth­er relat­ed ele­ments of logis­tics sup­port. The esti­mat­ed cost is $647 million.

This pro­posed sale will con­tribute to the for­eign pol­i­cy and nation­al secu­ri­ty of the Unit­ed States by help­ing to strength­en the U.S.-India strate­gic rela­tion­ship and to improve the secu­ri­ty of an impor­tant part­ner which con­tin­ues to be an impor­tant force for polit­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty, peace, and eco­nom­ic progress in South Asia.

India intends to use the how­itzers to mod­ern­ize its armed forces and enhance its abil­i­ty to oper­ate in haz­ardous con­di­tions. The how­itzers will assist the Indi­an Army to devel­op and enhance stan­dard­iza­tion and to improve inter­op­er­abil­i­ty with U.S. Sol­diers and Marines who use the M777 as their pri­ma­ry means of indi­rect fire. India will have no dif­fi­cul­ty absorb­ing these weapons into its armed forces.
The pro­posed sale of this equip­ment and sup­port will not alter the basic mil­i­tary bal­ance in the region.

The prin­ci­pal con­trac­tors will be, BAE of Hat­ties­burg, Mis­sis­sip­pi; Water­vli­et Arse­nal of Water­vli­et, New York; Seil­er Instru­ment Com­pa­ny of St Louis, Mis­souri; Tri­umph Actu­a­tion Sys­tems of Bloom­field, Con­necti­cut; Tay­lor Devices of North Tonawan­da, New York; Hutchin­son Indus­tries of Tren­ton, New Jer­sey; and Selex, Edin­burgh, Unit­ed King­dom. There are no known off­set agree­ments pro­posed in con­nec­tion with this poten­tial sale.

Imple­men­ta­tion of this pro­posed sale will require annu­al trips to India involv­ing up to eight (8) U.S. Gov­ern­ment and con­trac­tor rep­re­sen­ta­tives for tech­ni­cal reviews/support, train­ing, and in-coun­try tri­als for a peri­od of approx­i­mate­ly two years.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readi­ness as a result of this pro­posed sale.

This notice of a poten­tial sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

Source: Defense Secu­ri­ty Coop­er­a­tion Agency