AMCHAM’s Defense Committee held a meeting on July 30th under the leadership of Mr. Michael Fernandez, Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Country Head India & GBD South Asia, Lockheed Martin India and Mr. Alay Parikh, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Vice President – South Asia, International Business Development. The committee interacted with RDML Tuan Nguyen, Senior Defense Official / Defense Attache, U.S. Embassy and shared the perspective of U.S. defense industry in India. From the U.S. Embassy, Captain Jeremy Crestetto, Chief, U.S. Military Group – India, Mr. Nilesh Christian, Deputy Chief, U.S. Military Group – India, LTC James Kim, Deputy Chief, U.S. Military Group – India, and Maj Nate Wills, Director of Defense Cooperation in Armaments and Space, U.S. Military Group – India, joined the meeting. Defense industry representatives from BAE Systems, Boeing India, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon Technologies participated in the discussions which covered the present status of contracts and JVs, issues related to Make in India, co-development and co-production initiatives, concerns regarding India’s expected inertia on buying a platform, policy impediments for U.S. companies, level playing field challenges, approval timelines from U.S. for manufacturing, IP issues, and the need for higher level G2G dialogue. RDML Nguyen highlighted that the Embassy continues to be the voice of U.S. industry and extended support to industry.