WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says it has approved the sale of naval guns and related equipment to India in a deal worth more than $1 billion.

The department says it provide the legally required notification to Congress of the proposed sale of up to 13 of the naval guns after it determined it was in the interests of U.S. national security by "improving the security of a strategic national partner."

A State Department statement issued Wednesday said that India would use the MK-45 Gun System as "a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense."

The principal contractor would be BAE Systems Land and Armaments, based in Minneapolis with gun manufacturing in Louisville, Kentucky.