Rajnath Singh visits US Naval Warfare Centre, explores collaboration on Indigenous defence technologies
New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited on Sunday the William B. Morgan Large Cavitation Channel (LCC) at the Naval Surface Warfare Centre in the United States, where he was briefed about its operations and usage as India is exploring possibilities of establishing similar facilities in the country.
The Centre is one of the world's largest and most advanced water tunnel facilities.
During his visit, Rajnath Singh was briefed about the centre's operations and the usage of the tunnel, which is used to test submarines, torpedoes, naval surface ships, and propellers.
The Indian Ambassador to the US, the Director General of the Indian Navy, naval operations personnel, and defence technology advisors from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) accompanied the Defence Minister.
The visit was facilitated by the US Navy's Deputy Under Secretary, who welcomed Rajnath Singh. The Commander and Technical Director of the Naval Surface Warfare Center provided detailed insights during the visit, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
The purpose of this visit was to explore opportunities for India and the US to collaborate on establishing similar facilities in India, with a focus on indigenous design and development, it said.
In a post on social media platform X, the Defence Minister posted, "Visited Naval Surface Warfare Centre at Carderock and witnessed the pathbreaking experiments at the facility. India and the US look forward to working together and benefit from each other’s experiences."
He met with representatives from major US defence industry companies, including Boeing, GE, General Atomics, General Dynamics Land Systems, L3 Harris, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Rolls-Royce, and Thales.
Rajnath Singh's four-day visit to Washington, at the invitation of US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, included a bilateral meeting with his American counterpart and a meeting with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
This visit is taking place amid growing momentum in India-US relations and defence cooperation and is expected to further strengthen the global strategic partnership between the two nations, it said.
The Defence Minister also chaired a high-level roundtable discussion with the US defence industry, focusing on current and future defence collaboration.