NEW DELHI: Steadily cranking up military ties with Myanmar as part of the overall policy to counter China's strategic inroads in the region, India is now also going to export lightweight torpedoes to the country.
India is already providing rocket launchers, mortars, rifles, radars, night-vision devices, Gypsies, bailey bridges, communication and Inmarsat sets as well as road construction equipment like dozers, tippers and soil compacters to the Myanmarese armed forces.
The export documents for the $37.9 million deal with Myanmar for the indigenously developed torpedoes, in turn, were presented to finance-cum-defence minister Arun Jaitley at a function here on Friday.
The function, which included the presentation of the annual DRDO excellence awards, also saw Jaitley hand over three indigenously-developed products - USHUS-2 submarine sonar suite, directing gear and inertial navigation system for warships - to Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba.
DRDO chief S Christopher said the export of the lightweight torpedoes, which have been developed by his organisation and are produced by defence PSU Bharat Dynamics and engineering giant L&T, would follow the earlier supply of naval sonars, acoustic domes and directing gear to Myanmar. Indian Army , on its part, is also stepping-up coordinated patrolling with Myanmarese forces along the porous 1,643-km bilateral land border to turn the heat on Indian insurgent groups operating in the region.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com