The biggest hurdle facing the U.S.-India defense partnership is no longer getting both sides strategically aligned. Thanks to initiatives like the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X), and the expanded 2025 Major Defense Partnership, Washington and New Delhi have already built a solid, ambitious framework for technological cooperation.
Now, the real challenge is actually delivering on those promises.
It is easy for governments to agree on high-level strategy, but actually getting hardware into the field takes far longer. Right now, that time lag is becoming a major liability. While geopolitical threats mutate at the speed of a software update, traditional defense procurement remains bogged down by slow, legacy acquisition cycles. The geopolitical urgency is there, but the bureaucratic plumbing is backed up.
Breaking the Bureaucratic Bottleneck
The friction slowing down modern defense programs rarely stems from a lack of political will. Instead, it is the sheer weight of institutional process. Every joint project has to drag itself through a maze of export-control reviews, licensing requirements, tech-release decisions, supply-chain vetting, and complex systems integration. These steps exist for vital national security reasons, but their combined effect is a massive execution gap.
This delay is dangerous, especially in the exact tech sectors meant to define future conflicts: artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, advanced sensors, cyber defense, and electronic warfare. Many of these commercial-derivative technologies evolve much faster than defense procurement pipelines can move. This lag gives adversaries room to maneuver and creates real risks for democratic allies.
Why Israel Fits In
To shrink this timeline, Washington and New Delhi should bring in a partner that is built for speed: Israel.
This isn’t a proposal for a formal trilateral alliance, nor does it aim to water down the core U.S.-India bilateral relationship. It is a practical move to inject operational speed into the frameworks already on the table.
Israel’s edge in the global defense sector isn’t mass production; it’s agility. Its defense sector is uniquely good at taking immediate feedback from the front lines and turning it into battle-tested solutions on tight deadlines. Whether it is rapid software patching, sensor integration, or counter-drone (C-UAV) tech, Israel excels at turning prototypes into deployable systems. In a tight technological race, winning doesn’t just go to who invents a capability first, but to whoever can field it fastest.
Moving from Prototype to the Field
Unmanned and autonomous systems are the clearest example of how this three-way cooperation could work. From the Red Sea to the Indo-Pacific, cheap drone warfare has completely flipped military economics upside down. The hard part is no longer building these systems, but rapidly scaling up and deploying the countermeasures to stop them.
Under a trilateral approach, INDUS-X joint ventures could pair large-scale Indian manufacturing with foundational U.S. aerospace platforms, while dropping in modular Israeli electronic warfare or directed-energy subsystems. By focusing on integrating these subsystems rather than building entire platforms from scratch, the partners can sharply cut down the time it takes to get a prototype to the front line.
The same logic applies to iCET’s focus on AI. The U.S. brings world-class cloud infrastructure and processing power to the table, and India offers massive operational data environments. Israel’s expertise in Edge AI can provide the critical software layers needed to run predictive analytics in low-bandwidth, forward-deployed environments.
Handling the ITAR Obstacle
Any serious talk of trilateral defense work has to face the reality of technology transfers. The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and related export controls are crucial for protecting U.S. national security and maintaining a military edge.
The fix for current defense bottlenecks is not to weaken these guardrails. The solution is to design trilateral programs with regulatory compliance built into the blueprint from day one.
By setting clear technology boundaries, establishing a distinct division of labor, and planning out collaboration pathways early, the partners can protect sensitive technology without sacrificing operational speed. In modern statecraft, cutting through regulatory red tape efficiently is more than just an administrative win—it is a core strategic asset.
Speed Beats Scale
The next phase of U.S.-India defense cooperation will be judged solely by what it actually produces. The U.S. and India share clear operational goals across the Indo-Pacific maritime domain. The real question is whether they can innovate, integrate, and deploy capabilities fast enough to stay ahead of rapidly evolving threats.
This is where Israel can make a massive difference. Not as a replacement for the bilateral relationship, and not as a redundant third wheel, but as a specialized accelerator. Strategic partnerships only matter when they turn shared goals into real-world capabilities. In today’s threat landscape, speed isn’t just an advantage—it is the strategy.
About Author:
Sue Ghosh Stricklett is an Legal Counsel & National Security Policy Advisor specializing in international trade, export controls, and Indo-Pacific strategic affairs. She was nominated to serve as Assistant Administrator for the Asia Bureau at USAID and has advised presidential campaigns on Indo-Pacific policy and international trade.