By Mike Stone

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - A U.S.-led defense manufacturing partnership agreed to launch a new missile motor production program with Japan, push forward a drone cooperation effort across Asia and explore building a new ammunition production line in the Philippines, the Pentagon said on Friday.

The Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience, known as PIPIR, is a group of nations working together to build up their weapons and defense manufacturing capacity in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States set it up in May 2024 to reduce supply chain risks and help allies produce and maintain military equipment closer to where it might be needed.

The Pentagon published a joint statement following a virtual meeting on Wednesday, where the group welcomed two new members — Thailand and the United Kingdom — bringing its total membership to 16 countries spanning both the Indo-Pacific and Europe.

The group said it had agreed to set up a new program to produce solid rocket motors — the propulsion systems used in many guided weapons — with Japan taking the lead. The move is seen as a way to boost production capacity outside the United States for a key weapons component.

On drones, members agreed on a series of steps to develop common standards and shared supply chains for small military drones across the region, including work on batteries and small motors that power them. The group also agreed to explore building drones together across a range of military uses.

On ammunition, members said they would look into the Philippines hosting a new facility to load, assemble, and package 30mm cannon rounds — a type of ammunition widely used by military aircraft and ground vehicles.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; editing by Patricia Zengerle and Diane Craft)

((mike.stone@thomsonreuters.com;))