Lockheed May Pitch F-35; GoI Says No Plans to Buy F-35

[black eagle]

Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) may offer its latest F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to India in a bid to rejoin the Asian country's $11 billion combat-jet contest after the older F-16 model was eliminated earlier in the evaluation process.
Lockheed's chances of offering the F-35 for the 126-plane order were boosted when the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee last week asked the Defense Department to study by November the "desirability and feasibility" of a future JSF sale to India, Patrick Dewar, senior vice president for corporate strategy and business development, said in an interview at the Paris Air Show.

The Senate report accompanying the Pentagon's 2012 budget "opens the window to fifth-generation fighter technology release to India, however the Indian services want to deal with it," Dewar said. The contents of the Senate report, due to be published this week, couldn't immediately be confirmed.

Dewar said the Senate request for a Pentagon study on selling F-35s to India was part of a broader amendment on U.S.- India military ties offered by Senators John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, where the JSF is produced, and Joseph Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, home to United Technologies Corp., which makes the plane's engines.
Cornyn's spokeswoman Jessica Sandlin confirmed in an e-mail that the panel "overwhelmingly adopted" the India-F-35 language.

Mig-Replacement

Lockheed's F-16, based on a 30-year-old design, was eliminated in April from the six-way Indian contest to replace its aging fleet of 1970s-era Mig-21s, along with Boeing Co. (BA)'s F/A-18 Super Hornet. On the shortlist are Dassault Aviation SA (AM)'s Rafale and the Eurofighter made by BAE Systems Plc, Finmeccanica SpA and European Aeronautic, Defense & Space Co.

The competition is one of the largest in recent years and also attracted bids from Russia's OAO United Aircraft Corp. and Sweden's Saab AB (SAABB), which offered the Gripen. President Barack Obama had lobbied on behalf of Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed and Chicago-based Boeing.

"I certainly believe it's possible," Dewar said when asked if the potential F-35 offer could lead to the Indian Air Force reopening the contest. India "might think differently about the competition" should the stealthy jet become available.
Admitting the JSF to the bidding at this stage would be "contrary" to India's established weapons-acquisition procedure, said Mrinal Suman, an arms-procurement adviser at the Confederation of Indian Industry. "It's too late in the day," he said. "It would be seen by many as succumbing to U.S. pressure."
Indian defense ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar couldn't be reached for comment.

Lockheed May Pitch F-35 to Rejoin $11 Billion India Jet Bids - Bloomberg

No way. The F-35 should not even be allowed to enter the contest at this point in time. It would only end up delaying the entire process. Also, inclusion of F-35 may mean trouble for AMCA in the future. Also the pane itself is no good as has been seen off late. The US is just playing dirty tricks to delay the process even further.

 

[plugwater]

we are paying 125 mil for modified system
you will pay 115 like Canada and UK
this a great plane but delivery for India will start in 2016 best case scenario
can you wait that long ???

Price of one jet + Parts + maintenance will cost more than 250+ million. We are not Canada or UK, US always sell weapon only for insane amount of money to us. No we cant wait until 2016 already our squadron levels are depleting.

 

[SADAKHUSH]

Our Government in Cnada has also decided to purchase 65 F-35's and it is going to cost us $35 Billion and rising.Can some one explain me in black and white how it is going to cost Indian Government ony $11 billion for 126 of F-35. Who is crunching the numbers in India? What are the bureaucrats in Indian Defence Ministry smoking?

It really makes me very angry when the facts are not put out in the media as they are. Can some one with credibility respond to my querry please?

 

[pack leader]

India always used Israeli electronics, but will be able to Put Brahmos or any other missile systems....

Brahmos is too big to be carry internally in f 35 but Delila cruse missile , magic wand ( NG of Israeli AA missile ) and spice smart bombs will be integrated in Israeli version
Israeli f-35 will have Elta radar and alisra ecm

 

[plugwater]

Our Government in Cnada has also decided to purchase 65 F-35's and it is going to cost us $150 Billion.
Can some one explain me in black and white how it is going to cost Indian Government ony $11 billion for 126 of F-35. Who is crunching the numbers in India? What are the bureaucrats in Indian Defence Ministry smoking?

It really makes me very angry when the facts are not put out in the media as they are. Can some one with credibility respond to my querry please?

Check your numbers please.

 

[SADAKHUSH]

we are paying 125 mil for modified system
you will pay 115 like Canada and UK
this a great plane but delivery for India will start in 2016 best case scenario
can you wait that long ???

Canada is buying 65 of F-35 which is estimated to cost over $35 billion and rising. Can you do some number crunching for rest of us as to how it is going to cost India $11 Billion for 126 planes. Who is lying to who?

 

[pack leader]

SADAKHUSH do your own math 115 mil per plane + approx 1 billion in logistics
we pay 2.7 Bilion for 20 planes + option for 50 more for 5 billion
Canada's offer should be cheaper because they are buying base model

 

[black eagle]

Our Government in Cnada has also decided to purchase 65 F-35's and it is going to cost us $150 Billion.
Can some one explain me in black and white how it is going to cost Indian Government ony $11 billion for 126 of F-35. Who is crunching the numbers in India? What are the bureaucrats in Indian Defence Ministry smoking?

It really makes me very angry when the facts are not put out in the media as they are. Can some one with credibility respond to my querry please?

$150 billion for 65 F-35s!!!! Boy you are surely out of your mind. That works to more than $2 billion per plane. Crazy or what??!!!

 

[plugwater]

Canada is buying 65 of F-35 which is estimated to cost over $35 billion and rising. Can you do some number crunching for rest of us as to how it is going to cost India $11 Billion for 126 planes. Who is lying to who?

Canada is buying 65 jets for 9 billion which is around 140million for a jet.
Who told you that we are buying 125 F-35s for 11 billion ?

 

[gogbot]

All that bureaucracy is good for something , the MMRCA is not open to bid anymore that phase ended a long time ago.

The US is not allowed offer new plane at this stage.
Without conducting field trials no less.
Regardless of what they do not have the capability to trow a spanner in the MMRCA at this stage.

If they wish to offer the F-35 at all it will have to be on MMRCA terms , including ToT and Indian production lines.
As well as stipulated timelines. Don't expect MoD or IAF to entertain any bid that does not meet those criteria.

The will need to make an above and beyond offer with the F-35 , to make India cancel the MMRCA contract. And sign a new deal with them.

Its frankly unrealistic to expect the F-35 to come out of nowhere and take the deal , if IAF had actually conducted some field trials it may be different.

Honestly though i would like to see the F-35 in our fleet(if it does pass any and all IAF field trials) , it would definitely give us the leg up in the region. Not to mention it would meet our strike need perfectly.

 

[Oracle]

If we make a peace agreement with Pakistan, nothing would be needed.

 

[SADAKHUSH]

Check your numbers please.

Thank you for catching my mistake. Just edited it. My apologies for the mistake.

 

[sukhish]

and also problems with PAKFA??

No problems with PAKFA, I mean this shi***t is really getting interesting now. uncle sam is really doing what's its known for. offering F-35 itself mean the strong relationship. thanks to pakistan for screwing it's relationship with U.S.
this shows how much US is willing to trust India. now India doesn't want to come too close to US and neither it wants to to go far away from U.S. it won't be bad to buy few from the U.S

 

[SADAKHUSH]

$150 billion for 65 F-35s!!!! Boy you are surely out of your mind. That works to more than $2 billion per plane. Crazy or what??!!!

It was my typing error, I have corrected that. You guys are super fast. Thank you.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

No problems with PAKFA, I mean this shi***t is really getting interesting now. uncle sam is really doing what's its known for. offering F-35 itself mean the strong relationship. thanks to pakistan for screwing it's relationship with U.S.
this shows how much US is willing to trust India. now India doesn't want to come too close to US and neither it wants to to go far away from U.S. it won't be bad to buy few from the U.S

how many is a few?? we should buy 50 at the bare minimum.

 

[Illusive]

didn't India already rejected f 35 offer, then y this talk now. AMCA project can't be compromised, our mki are more than enough for pak, while for china we have fgfa.
India Rejects US F-35 JSF Offer:Open Source Information

 

[plugwater]

Thank you for catching my mistake. Just edited it. My apologies for the mistake.

Its not 35 billion. You are going to pay only 9 billion for 65 jets.

 

[LurkerBaba]

If we make a peace agreement with Pakistan, nothing would be needed.

thanks to pakistan for screwing it's relationship with U.S.
this shows how much US is willing to trust India.

F35 will come too late, with too many constraints and destroy our AMCA program. Plus it'll make a mockery of the whole MMRCA selection process

 

[pack leader]

wow you Canadians suck at haggling
not only do we pay 1.3 billion less then you
we get free weapon and sensor integration

 

[gogbot]

F35 will come too late, with too many constraints and destroy our AMCA program.

I was on the other side of the argument at the time , and that made little sense beyond the superfical when we talked about the Griphen damaging the Tejas-mkII .

I honestly don't see where this fear comes from.

AMCA and F-35 have totally different design principles ,
Biggest being that AMCA is twin engined , and does not have to compromises to meet unnecessary requirements like the F-35

Plus it'll make a mockery of the whole MMRCA selection process

I agree

That what the US does to every country they sell to , its nothing to new and it what the Europeans always fear.
When US wants to sell you arms , it is very likely going to make mockery of your selection process that's just how they do their deals