Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral defence ties with the US during her visit to Washington starting Saturday. During her six-day tour, she will also discuss with her counterpart James Mattis the security situation in the Indian sub-continent including Afghanistan, Pakistan and China and Indo-Pacific region besides having more intense military exercises between the armed forces of two countries.

Defence co-operation between the two countries has grown with both sides holding regular exercises and the US emerging as one of the biggest weapons supplier to India.  In fact, the trade is now more than ten billion dollars in the last few years.  Sitharaman and Mattis will discuss avenues to scale up the level of defence and strategic ties during their talks, it was learnt.

Sitharaman will also visit Hawaii to honor the renaming of Pacific Command as Indo-Pacific command, recognising the importance of India in east and far east, sources said. Her schedule also includes a visit to the Mountain View headquarters of Pentagon's defence innovation unit (DIUx).

The two sides are likely to discuss the issue of US selling armed Predator drones to India after the Pentagon approved the sale of weaponised drone to India.  This platform can perform many roles including multi-mission intelligence, surveillance and hitting targets from land and sea from a height of 40,000 feet.

Sitharaman is also likely to bring up the issue of waiver on Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act(CAATSA)for the acquisition of S-400 missile system from Russia in deal worth over five billion dollars.  India has time and again said Russia is a time tested strategic partner of India and the country needs the missiles for its air defence. Moreover, India maintains that CAATSA is a US law and not an international legal framework.