Artwork | Shruti Pushkarna/StratPost
The Chief of Air Staff of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne will accept delivery of the second Boeing C-17, at the company’s final assembly facility at Long Beach in California, USA on Monday, said an IAF statement.
The first IAF C-17 landed in India last month. The IAF has ordered a total of 10 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III strategic lift aircraft. Boeing is also expected to deliver the second of eight P-8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft to the Indian Navy this month.
The IAF chief is on a ‘four-day visit to the United States of America’ at the invitation of General Mark A. Welsh III, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force (USAF), according to the statement.
Besides Welsh, Browne is also scheduled to meet General Martin E. Dempsey, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Herbert J. “Hawk” Carlisle, Commander, Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). The IAF statement said Browne is ‘likely to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues on the ongoing defence cooperation between the two countries towards strengthening the growing US-India Security and Defence relationship’.
Browne will also visit the US Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Maryland and the US Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. According to the statement, he graduated from the Air Command and Staff College, Alabama in 1987 and is visiting the US after 26 years.
The Indian defense ministry is still negotiating orders for 22 AH-64D Boeing Apache attack helicopters and 15 Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopters, as well as a follow-on order for six C-130J Super Hercules, in addition to the six already operated by the IAF.
Besides the above purchases from the the US, the defense ministry is also negotiating an order for 145 BAE Systems M-777 lightweight howitzers. Defense trade and cooperation between the two countries is expected to be high on the agenda during the four-day visit of US Vice President Joe Biden to India, beginning Monday.
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