U.S. Pursues India as a Supply-Chain Alternative to China

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is turning to India for help as the U.S. works to shift critical technology supply chains away from China and other countries that it says use that technology to destabilise global security.

Administration officials hosted meetings this week with a delegation of Indian officials and U.S. industry executives, seeking to facilitate technology development and investment in India as part of a broader U.S. push to cultivate alternatives to China.

Challenges arising from Beijing’s expanding global influence have had “a profound impact on the thinking in Delhi just as they have had on the profound impact on the thinking in other capitals,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday. “There is an element of that that forms a backdrop for the discussions here.”

The meetings come on the heels of an agreement with Japan and the Netherlands to start restricting exports of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment to China, joining efforts by the Biden administration to slow China’s military development by cutting access to advanced technologies.

U.S. officials hope those export restrictions create opportunities in India and elsewhere. While India isn’t among the world’s top producers of semiconductors, New Delhi has sought to assert itself as a greater semiconductor player. India is an appealing partner for industries looking to diversify their supply sources. With a population of 1.4 billion people, the country has a massive source of labor and costs are relatively low.

On Tuesday, the administration hosted a task force organised by the Semiconductor Industry Association, which is working in partnership with the Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association, to develop a “readiness assessment,” aimed at trying to accelerate cooperation and investments. The meetings were attended by top American executives from a range of industries, including defense giant Lockheed Martin and semiconductor producer Micron, administration officials said.

India’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, led New Delhi’s delegation this week in meetings with Mr. Sullivan and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other officials.

The meetings underscore a broader U.S. effort to meet challenges from China through alliances with other countries. The Biden administration has given priority to Washington’s relationship with what is known as the Quad—an alliance between India, Australia, Japan and the U.S. that has focused on countering Beijing.

“President Biden really believes that no successful and enduring effort to address any of the major challenges in the world today…is going to be effective without a close U.S.-India partnership at its heart,” a senior administration official said.

However, a number of challenges in recent months have strained relations between Washington and New Delhi. India has maintained a neutral stance on the war in Ukraine and has continued to purchase discounted oil from Russia, rebuffing the Biden administration’s offer to replace Russian oil with U.S. supplies. Instead, India has increased its imports of Russian crude.

Biden administration officials said they understand the enormous domestic demand facing India and said that India continues to buy oil well below the price cap agreed to by allies late last year.

The key, U.S. officials said, is to offer India alternatives. The administration remains hopeful that it can ween India off purchasing Russian military equipment by offering incentives for it to diversify. Mr. Sullivan said generally, the U.S. is doing that through joint production and development. Top priorities in that effort include joint development of jet engines, artillery systems, armoured infantry, vehicles and maritime security.

General Electric has just submitted a proposal to the U.S. government for a jointly produced jet engine in the defence technology space.

“This is the kind of thing where we’re looking to make fast and ambitious progress,” Mr. Sullivan said.

India has also expressed frustration that two years into the Biden administration, there remains no U.S. ambassador. Earlier this month, the White House submitted to the Senate dozens of presidential selections who failed to win confirmation last year.

India is among a number of countries to also call for an overhaul to the U.S. H-1B visa, a nonimmigrant visa that allows U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Advocates have called for reforms to the program, including an increase in the annual cap, as well as for a more simplified process.

The State Department has made some progress on the issue, but employers expect delays in obtaining visas to continue in some places, including India. Visitor visas will likely also remain problematic.

It’s go time for the highest-stakes mission at NASA in more than 50 years.

On April 1, the agency is set to launch four astronauts around the moon, the deepest human spaceflight since the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.

The launch window for Artemis II , as the mission is called, opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams have been preparing the vehicles to depart from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on the planned roughly 10-day trip. Crew members have trained for years for this moment.

Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, said he doesn’t fear taking the voyage. A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.

“I could have a very comfortable life for them,” Wiseman said in an interview last September.

“But I’m also a human, and I see the spirit in their eyes that is burning in my soul too. And so we’ve just got to never stop going.”

Wiseman’s crewmates on Artemis II are NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Photo: NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft being rolled out at night. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images

What are the goals for Artemis II?

The biggest one: Safely fly the crew on vehicles that have never carried astronauts before.

The towering Space Launch System rocket has the job of lofting a vehicle called Orion into space and on its way to the moon.

Orion is designed to carry the crew around the moon and back. Myriad systems on the ship—life support, communications, navigation—will be tested with the astronauts on board.

SLS and Orion don’t have much flight experience. The vehicles last flew in 2022, when the agency completed its uncrewed Artemis I mission .

How is the mission expected to unfold?

Artemis II will begin when SLS takes off from a launchpad in Florida with Orion stacked on top of it.

The so-called upper stage of SLS will later separate from the main part of the rocket with Orion attached, and use its engine to set up the latter vehicle for a push to the moon.

After Orion separates from the upper stage, it will conduct what is called a translunar injection—the engine firing that commits Orion to soaring out to the moon. It will fly to the moon over the course of a few days and travel around its far side.

Orion will face a tough return home after speeding through space. As it hits Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will be flying at 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The capsule is designed to land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Diego.

Water photo: NASA’s Orion capsule after its splash-down in the Pacific Ocean in 2022 for the Artemis I mission. Mario Tama/Press Pool

Is it possible Artemis II will be delayed?

Yes.

For safety reasons, the agency won’t launch if certain tough weather conditions roll through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. Delays caused by technical problems are possible, too. NASA has other dates identified for the mission if it doesn’t begin April 1.

Who are the astronauts flying on Artemis II?

The crew will be led by Wiseman, a retired Navy pilot who completed military deployments before joining NASA’s astronaut corps. He traveled to the International Space Station in 2014.

Two other astronauts will represent NASA during the mission: Glover, an experienced Navy pilot, and Koch, who began her career as an electrical engineer for the agency and once spent a year at a research station in the South Pole. Both have traveled to the space station before.

Hansen is a military pilot who joined Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009. He will be making his first trip to space.

Koch’s participation in Artemis II will mark the first time a woman has flown beyond orbits near Earth. Glover and Hansen will be the first African-American and non-American astronauts, respectively, to do the same.

What will the astronauts do during the flight?

The astronauts will evaluate how Orion flies, practice emergency procedures and capture images of the far side of the moon for scientific and exploration purposes (they may become the first humans to see parts of the far side of the lunar surface). Health-tracking projects of the astronauts are designed to inform future missions.

Those efforts will play out in Orion’s crew module, which has about two minivans worth of living area.

On board, the astronauts will spend about 30 minutes a day exercising, using a device that allows them to do dead lifts, rowing and more. Sleep will come in eight-hour stretches in hammocks.

There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.

Each astronaut is permitted two flavored beverages a day, including coffee. The crew will hold one hourlong shared meal each day.

The Universal Waste Management System—that’s the toilet—uses air flow to pull fluid and solid waste away into containers.

What happens after Artemis II?

Assuming it goes well, NASA will march on to Artemis III, scheduled for next year. During that operation, NASA plans to launch Orion with crew members on board and have the ship practice docking with lunar-lander vehicles that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been developing. The rendezvous operations will occur relatively close to Earth.

NASA hopes that its contractors and the agency itself are ready to attempt one or more lunar landing missions in 2028. Many current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that timeline is feasible.

U.S. Pursues India as a Supply-Chain Alternative to China

Biden administration turns to New Delhi as it seeks to steer critical technologies away from Beijing

The lunar flyby would be the deepest humans have traveled in space in decades.