NEW DELHI, Sept 9: Senior US defence officials have briefed their Indian counterparts on the Patriot-3 anti-missile system, the American side said on Friday, as the two countries’ military ties continue to grow. Lt-Gen Jeffrey B. Kohler, heading the US team, said the “very productive” talks which began on Wednesday were a continuation of discussions held over the past 10 months.
“India is at that point where they need to take some internal decisions about their strategic and operational concepts ... Missile defence is an extremely difficult and complicated process to go through. There are very difficult decisions to be made,” Kohler told reporters.
“The Patriot-3 system has very unique capabilities against current threats particularly against WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and that is what we focussed on,” said Kohler, director of the Pentagon’s Defence Cooperative Agency.
Kohler refused to give details about the system’s interception range but said any sales would include spares and training of personnel.—AFP
