Renewed helicopters for India

July 28, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
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.

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India’s indigenous helicopter struggling

June 16, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: EADS, HAL, India, Military Aviation, Restructuring, development program, production program 

According to this article the Indian Navy is canceling its procurement of Druhz helicopters. This light aircraft made indigenously by HAL is failing to meet the operational requirements. The Navy will now look to buy a new, most likely foreign aircraft, to meet its needs. The Indian Army and Air Force are also planning to buy new aircraft, and the original plan was to make a joint Indian-Eurocopter aircraft but that deal fell apart due to corruption issues. For more on that see this.

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India to buy 384 light helicopters

April 10, 2008 by Dagpotter · 2 Comments
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.

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Shhh!! Don’t tell Congress

March 18, 2008 by Dagpotter · 1 Comment
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.

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India to recompete helicopter contract

January 29, 2008 by Dagpotter · 1 Comment
Filed under: EADS, HAL, India, Proposal, commercial aviation, production program 

According to AFP here, India will put out for rebid its utility helicopter contract. India had previously awarded a contract to Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS, to buy 197 aircraft. This was scrapped due to what the Indian Government called irregularities, which EADS has denied. The new contract is for 312 helicopters and is worth substantially more.

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Boeing Signs MOU on Aircraft Production with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL)

December 24, 2007 by Dagpotter · 1 Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Business Line, Contract Awards, 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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