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India and the United Kingdom have discussed the future of electric propulsion in naval vessels during the second India-UK Electric Propulsion Capability Partnership Joint Working Group meeting, which took place in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The meeting was co-chaired by Joint Secretary (Naval Systems), Department of Defence Production Rajeev Prakash and Director, Ships Operations and Capability Integration, Defence Equipment & Support, Rear Admiral Steve McCarthy. During a 2022 Defence Expo in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, organisations from India and the UK's defence industry united to create a new defence industry joint working group for more effective cooperation. Following the Gadhinagar expo the Electric Propulsion Capability Partnership was later established with the aim of helping India develop maritime electric-propulsion technology for its future warships. India's naval warships do not currently have electric propulsion systems. The Indian Navy is considering adding them to future warships. On Tuesday, the British and Indian sides discussed issues of the Electric Propulsion Partnership like finalisation of the Statement of Technical Requirements (SOTR), Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) procedures, maintenance, Manning Philosophy and System Integration requirements. A post shared on X, formerly Twitter, by the UK Defence in India stated, "Progress through partnership with people and safety at its heart and huge capability opportunity for the@indiannavy. Exiting times ahead for our marine engineers." Electric propulsion uses electrical power to drive propeller blades for propulsion. Developing Electric Propulsion can have numerous effects on a military including increasing electric power availability, reducing carbon footprint and improving ship navigation economy. India has had continuous multifaceted cooperation with the UK defence sector, institutionalizing defence dialogue at Defence secretary level. The Indian army also has regular exhanges between the two services including some handling of officer training and the conducting of joint exercises. The 7th edition of AJEYA WARRIOR-23, a joint military exercise between India and the United Kingdom was conducted in the UK between April and May of this year. The exercise is conducted alternatively in the UK and India, with the previous edition being held in Chaubatia, Uttarakhand. Soldiers of the 2 Royal Gorkha Rifles from the United Kingdom and Indian Army soldiers from the BIHAR Regiment were in attendance. The aim of the exercise was to build positive military relations, imbibe each other's best practices and promote the ability to operate together while undertaking company-level sub-conventional operations in urban and semi-urban environments under UN mandate, in addition to developing inter-operability, bonhomie, camaraderie, and friendship between the two armies, an Indian Ministry of Defence statement read. (ANI)
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