India steadily increases defense spending
Filed under: England, India, Military Aviation, S&T, development program, logistics, production program
The headline on this article in the Daily Telegraph is a little misleading once you read it. India is on a path to more then double defense spending in the next twenty years, where it will be higher then the current UK’s budget. For India to exceed Britain’s budget it would take the UK holding spending steady, and actually adjusted for inflation, reducing it. It is certainly possible to imagine that the UK, and the US for that matter, may have to reduce spending as the budgetary reality catches up to them regarding the cost of social services and deficit spending. The other point of the story the money that India is putting into updating and modernizing their military by moving to buying advanced Western weapons rather then relying on Russian and indigenous producers is probably more important then the amount of spending.
The article by David Blair and Thomas Harding can be found here.
India goes with AW for new VIP aircraft
Filed under: Agusta Westland, Contract Awards, India, Military Aviation, Sikorsky, commercial aviation, production program
Like the US Navy, India awarded a contract to Augusta Westland for their new VIP transport helicopter. The contract is worth about $300 M. Sikorsky was one of the unsuccessful bidders with their S-92 aircraft. The EH-101 selected will offer a larger cabin, although it is a more expensive aircraft. US companies have been trying hard lately to break into the Indian market as that country has turned away from its traditional English and Russian suppliers. India has also made a great effort to begin developing a sophisticated, indigenous arm suppliers.
See The Hartford Courant article about this contract here.
Gripen NG pitched to the Netherlands
Filed under: Holland, Military Aviation, Proposal, SAAB, production program
SAAB submitted a proposal to the Dutch government for replacement of the F-16 Fighting Falcons in service at this time. The current plan is to buy F-35 JSF aircraft. The SAAB proposal includes the Gripen aircraft, support, training and spares. No price for the 85 aircraft proposal was provided. If it is competitive there may be some desire by the Dutch to buy this aircraft over the F-35. SAAB has also proposed a Gripen to Norway and India.
For more see FlightGlobal.com.
India moves to limit middlemen in contracts
Filed under: Boeing, D'Assault, EADS, FMS, India, Lockheed Martin, MiG, Military Aviation, Proposal, SAAB, production program
India already loosened their offset requirements leading to progress on the new fighter contract. Now the government moved to limit the use of Indian representatives or “agents” in helping the foreign companies with their bid. The six teams that submitted proposals are moving to line up Indian companies to support their fabrication and delivery of the aircraft. By limiting these agents the Indian government hopes to make the process more open and increase the ability of non-Indian companies to use their industry.
See Central Chronicle for more.
Six bids for India’s new advanced fighter
Filed under: Contract Awards, D'Assault, India, MiG, Military Aviation, Proposal, production program
With the decision here to relax the off set provisions required for work on Indian defense contracts India received six new proposals for their new advanced fighter aircraft, the MMRCA. See a story here. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, EADS, MiG, SAAB and D’Assault submitted proposals. Aircraft from these companies are currently under evaluation with a decision to be made in the next several months.
India changes offset reqirements
Looking at several major contracts to be awarded in the next ten years, India’s government has decided to relax their offset requirements. See a story here. As previously discussed here, India had been demanding major off set investments that some foreign companies felt were too difficult to meet. Now the government will allow companies to just hold funding to meet the offset requirements. This will make it easier for companies to bid on the contracts.
Renewed helicopters for India
Filed under: HAL, India, Military Aviation, Proposal, development program, production program
India has decided to put out an RFP for light helicopters after all the back-and-forth. See an article here. As previously discussed the planned acquisition was canceled, then planned again, and now it will be for a reduced number than the last attempt. Now rather then going with a 100% foreign buy the contract will be split between a non-Indian company and HAL. One positive of this is that they plan to limit the tech transfer, requirements that recently have been seen as onerous, to only those for the support of the aircraft.
Boeing Indian contract cancelled due end-user agreements
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, India, Military Aviation, production program
India canceled a contract with Boeing for P-8 maritime patrol aircraft due to disagreements over end-user limits on the US technology involved. See an article here. The $2.2 B contract was ready to go for final approval when talks broke down over how to review equipment to prevent technology transfer. India objected to the harsh provisions. This does not mean that the contract could not be renegotiated, but it may be India turns to another provider.
India ends tank program
Filed under: India, Restructuring, development program, production program
India has decided to not continue their indigenous main battle tank program. See an article here. India had developed and put into production their own Arjun system, but have now decided that it is not what they need for the long term. No more production contracts will be placed and they will instead build out the 120 or so on order. They will look to foreign firms for a more advanced system. Read more
Israel passes Britain to become fourth largest defense exporting country
According to this article in 2007 Israel passed Britain to become the fourth largest defense exporting country. They follow the US, Russia and France now. The two biggest customers are the US and India. The recent win of the Indian AWACS contract, reported here, had a great deal to do with that. The Israeli government and industry have made major strides in recent times increasing their exports rather then just focusing on domestic needs.
Indian Defence Minister stresses good aspects of offset clause
Filed under: India, Military Aviation, Proposal, development program
Bump - According to this article as a way to meet the 30% offset requirement, EADS offered to let India join the Eurofighter upgrade program. India would become part of the program’s member countries, the fifth one to join, and also would have the opportunity to participate in other planned EADS programs.
India’s government currently requires that any contract awarded to a foreign defense company have a 30% offset clause. See an article here. Minister of Defense Antony recently reassured foreign companies that this is not a bad thing. For the new fighter contract currently being bid on by various American, European and Russian companies the offset will be 50%. Some of the offerers are balking at this provision. The Minister rightly points out that this kind of offset will allow the foreign companies to develop capabilities in India that might benefit them in the long run.
6 proposals for India’s new fighter
Filed under: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, MiG, Military Aviation, SAAB, production program
Six companies submitted bids for India’s new fighter acquisition. See a story here. As expected both Boeing and Lockheed submitted bids as well as MiG, SAAB, Aerospatiale and the Eurofighter Typhoon. This goal is to narrow the competition to two or three of the proposals and then choose a winner with first aircraft due in 2011. This means that SAAB has bid on this and the Norwegian buy in less then a week.
Israel to equip IL-76 with AWACS for India
Filed under: Contract Awards, India, Israel, Military Aviation, production program
India has placed an order for 3 more Phalcon Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) aircraft. See the story here. IAI will modify the aircraft procured from Uzbekistan with their Phalcon system. India previously ordered three IL-76 AWACS aircraft from Russia. These three aircraft from IAI may end up being their largest contract ever with any source, worth potentially $2 B. Read more
India to buy 384 light helicopters
Filed under: Bell, EADS, HAL, India, Kamov, Military Aviation, Proposal, production program
After canceling an earlier contract for Army helicopters, India is trying it again. This time though they are buying 259 for their Army and another 125 for the Air Force. See an article here. For information on the previous contract action see this. It is expected that Bell, Eurocopter, Augusta and Kamov will bid on the contract. The Indian government had for years relied on Russian and British equipment, but is now turning to America and other nations for their procurements. Based on past other procurements we will see similar aircraft to those that were proposed for the US Army’s Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program which was won by the Eurocopter EC-145 aircraft.
Boeing to bid on India’s new fighter
Filed under: Boeing, India, Military Aviation, production program
Boeing confirmed that they will submit a proposal to India for a new fighter. See the story here. Boeing will bid the F/A-18 against competition from Russia, Sweden, France, the UK and Lockheed Martin. The contract is for 126 aircraft, and if Boeing won would be a major coup for them, because as we previously wrote here their defense business is declining.
Indian C-130J ordered
Filed under: Contract Awards, FMS, India, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, production program
The Department of Defense ordered the six Indian C-130J aircraft from Lockheed Martin. See the article here. As in the case of most Foreign Military Sales (FMS) India just piggy-backed on the current production contract. This gives them the lowest price possible due to production quantities and stability. The total contract is worth over $1 B, but the aircraft part is about $600 M.
Shhh!! Don’t tell Congress
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, EADS, HAL, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., Protest, production program
HAL announced today in this article that they expect their MOU with Boeing to bear fruit with exports to America. See this previous story for more on the MOA. HAL believes that they will make parts and components for Boeing for such US military programs as the F-15, F/A-18 and AH-64. Based on the furor over the tanker award to Northrop-Grumman and EADS you would think Congress would protest the outsourcing of such jobs to a foreign country.
India plans to revamp defense contracting policies
Stung by the recent bribery and corruption issues related to large hardware contracts, India plans to update its policies and procedures to make it more easy for the foreign companies to understand. See IndiaPRWire.com for the actual release. One key stumbling block is the large offset required in the new policy. Some of the foreign manufacturers might balk at the amount of money required to be invested in India.
Boeing Signs MOU on Aircraft Production with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL)
Boeing announced on Thursday that it signed a new agreement with HAL that will allow the Indian company to build aircraft components. Currently, Boeing expects less than $20 M in annual business, but the agreement will last ten years and could grow to $1 Billion. See article here.
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