India has offered to buy two intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) aircraft from Raytheon on a government-to-government basis.

The request was made to visiting US Defense Secretary Ash Carter Wednesday, said a Defence Ministry source. Another project which India and the US are discussing, on India’s request, is joint development of the GE-414 jet engine for use by India’s homemade Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), the source added.

The Defence Ministry’s official release did not mention India’s offer, but the MoD source said the proposal has been kept low key.

The Air Force has already been briefed by Raytheon about the ISTAR aircraft and has evinced interest in wanting to procure planes that will use an active electronically scanned array radar and be able to scan more than 30,000 kilometers in a minute and analyze that data in 10 to 15 minutes to identify the targets.

No official of Raytheon was available for comment.

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