MUMBAI: India has asked the US to enable it to provide maintenance and repair facilities in Indian shipyards for American naval vessels present in the region, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar said on Wednesday. He said a team of US officials will soon visit Indian shipyards to assess this possibility.
Responding to a question from reporters on the sidelines of the launch of submarine INS Vagsheer, Kumar said this matter was discussed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his US counterpart Lloyd J Austin III during the 2+2 dialogue held in Washington earlier this month.
"We requested the US side to enable us to provide maintenance and repair facilities (of their vessels) which are present in this region. The US has agreed to send a team to talk to our shipyards and work out the feasibility in this regard. We expect this team will be here shortly. They will be visiting other shipyards, but they will (also) be visiting Mazagon Dock (in Mumbai)," he added.
Asked whether similar discussions are being held with other countries too, Kumar said Indian shipyards have been talking to a number of nations across different geographies - in South America, Africa and Asia, particularly West Asia and the ASEAN region... in some countries we are already in the process of supplying various kinds of naval boats and patrol vessels. "In some other countries, we are in discussion," the senior bureaucrat said.
Narayan Prasad, Chairman and Managing Director, Mazagon Dock Shipyards Ltd (MDL), said this issue came up for discussion during the visit of Admiral Michael Gilday, US Chief of Naval Operations, in October last year.
He, however, cited logistical issues at state-run MDL for maintenance of large vessels. Prasad said that the length, breadth of the US amphibious platforms, landing platform docks, support vessels is above 220 meters and their displacement is above 25,000-30,000 tonnes.
"The length and breadth of the draft of the ships they are trying to entrust the repairs with... very few shipyards have the capacity of dry docks (to accommodate the ships). We have said we can completely take care of those ships whose length is less than 200 metres," the MDL chief had said during an interaction with reporters last week.
The Cochin Shipyard has capabilities to deal with such huge amphibious platforms, Prasad said, adding the work can be done jointly along with the Mumbai Port Trust.
India and the US had inked the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016 that allows their militaries use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies as well as provide for deeper cooperation.