Saab's MRMR version is being developed exclusively for India
The Saab Group is flying on the wings of a different platform in India these days. The Saab 2000 hopes to successfully land the Indian Navy's contract for a Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft. The Indian Navy had issued the request for information (RFI) for the MRMR late last year and early this year, revised the Qualitative Requirements a bit. The request for proposal (RFP) is expected to go out by the end of June 2011. At the moment, the navy is looking for six aircraft with the option of procuring six more. And Saab Group believes that it may have a winner in hand.
Talking to FORCE in early May, business development director, sales and marketing (aircraft services division), Saab, Tommy Hultin, was both confident and hopeful about Saab 2000 making the cut. "We do not only meet the requirements of the Indian Navy, we exceed them. What we are proposing is a platform and a system with a huge growth potential. The Saab 2000 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) has the capacity and the flexibility of meeting the needs of the Indian Navy as they exist today and as they might be in the future," he says, by way of an impassioned introduction.
The Saab Group is flying on the wings of a different platform in India these days. The Saab 2000 hopes to successfully land the Indian Navy's contract for a Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft. The Indian Navy had issued the request for information (RFI) for the MRMR late last year and early this year, revised the Qualitative Requirements a bit. The request for proposal (RFP) is expected to go out by the end of June 2011. At the moment, the navy is looking for six aircraft with the option of procuring six more. And Saab Group believes that it may have a winner in hand.
Talking to FORCE in early May, business development director, sales and marketing (aircraft services division), Saab, Tommy Hultin, was both confident and hopeful about Saab 2000 making the cut. "We do not only meet the requirements of the Indian Navy, we exceed them. What we are proposing is a platform and a system with a huge growth potential. The Saab 2000 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) has the capacity and the flexibility of meeting the needs of the Indian Navy as they exist today and as they might be in the future," he says, by way of an impassioned introduction.
Developed in 1992, Saab 2000 entered service in 1994 as a regional aircraft. Since then, while the company has sold 60 units of the 2000 version which are flying worldwide in various configurations including one with the Pakistan Air Force as an AEW&C platform, 400 units of Saab 340 are currently operational. The MRMR version is being developed exclusively for India. To give the Indian Navy a flavour of what Saab 2000 is all about, the company flew down the aircraft to Bangalore in February 2011 during Aero India. Apart from a special flight for the media in which one of the FORCE correspondents flew, delegations from the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard were taken on sorties too and according to Hultin, they were appreciative of the potential of the aircraft. Apart from the Indian Navy, Saab is also exploring the possibilities of bidding for IAF's tender for a transport aircraft and for the Indian Coast Guard's surveillance requirements.
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