Imported Single Engine Fighter Jet Contest

[WolfPack86]

Global Aviation Majors Continue To Woo India To Bag Fighter Jet Tender

Lockheed Martin has proposed an advanced variant, the F-16IN "Super Viper" specially for India. The F-16IN is the most advanced F-16 ever, notable features include an AN/APG-80 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, advanced electronic warfare suites, and an infrared search and track (IRST) system
Two of world's major military aviation companies have sweetened the terms for making combat jets in India. The Government expects response from Russian companies too.
New Delhi: India has received proposals from two foreign companies within two months of asking countries like the US, Sweden and Russia to locally build a fighter under a generous technology transfer (ToT) arrangement.
The winner will bag the right to sell the fighters to India for several decades as the Indian Air Force seeks to build 42 active squadrons.

SAAB of Sweden and Lockheed Martin from the USA have shown interest in manufacturing single engine fighter jets in the country. The initial proposals of both the companies entail ToT for manufacturing of fighter jets in India," Subhash Bhamre, India’s Minister of State for Defense informed Parliament on December 2.

However, these global aircraft manufacturers have till now not detailed documents to back up their expression of interest proposals. Sources say that Saab is offering ‘ITAR-free’ Galium Nitride AESA radar technology but it is not clear whether Lockheed Martin was making a similar offer. Indian government plans to replace all the MiG-21 squadrons with the new single-engine fighter in the next few years.
India is expected to issue a formal request of proposal (RFP) after receiving the initial response from the global manufacturers. In the absence of a RFP, global manufacturers are unaware of demanded numbers, technical requirements and cost of the exercise.
India is staring at a startling shortage of combat jets to fight two front wars with Pakistan and China. Recently, India has decided to procure 36 Rafale aircraft from France but the first delivery will be made two years and the numbers will equip only two squadrons.
The current strength of the Indian Air Force is 34 squadrons (18-20 aircraft per squadron) which is far below the required strength of 42 squadrons suggested by Indian Parliamentary committees panels for two front wars.
http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2016/12/global-aviation-majors-continue-to-woo.html

 

[tharun]

I don't know people why support f-16 & 18...those americans drags us to WTO for solar panels import....stops exporting parts for drones...so that we can never have a drone and rely on them....So you guys trusting that they will give technology.....keep dreaming..this dreams will burst in jan 2017

 

[WolfPack86]

As Trump Vows To Stop Flow Of Jobs OverSeas , U.S. Plans To Make Fighters Jets In India

NEW DELHI — As a new American president bent on retaining American jobs prepares to take office, the Obama administration and the U.S. defense industry are working on a deal with the Indian government to build iconic U.S. combat aircraft in India.
In recent months, Lockheed Martin and Boeing have made proposals to the Indian government to manufacture fighter jets — the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F/A-18 Super Hornet — in India as the country seeks to modernize its rapidly aging fleet of largely Russian-built airplanes.
In both cases, the aviation companies would be building production facilities in India; Lockheed Martin proposes to move its entire F-16 assembly line from Texas to India, making India the sole producer of the single-engine combat aircraft.
The U.S. military is phasing out the F-16 for its own use, but other countries remain as likely customers.
The proposals have the strong backing of the Obama administration, which has sought a closer connection with the Indian military in recent years. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said she was “optimistic” about the prospect of a deal after a visit to New Delhi in August, and Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter is set to return to India this week, with procurement high atop the list of discussion topics.
But the election of a billionaire businessman focused on keeping jobs at home, rather than creating them overseas, has brought a measure of uncertainty to the talks.
“What will be the U.S. policy posture now that the new president-elect is in the mix?” said one high-level official at an American defense firm in India, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal negotiations. “Is he going to continue the policy of engaging in India on co-production and co-development? All of those are unknown at this point.”
On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump appeared at a Carrier plant in Indiana, where his team had brokered a deal to save about 1,000 jobs, and on Sunday he let fire a series of tweets that implied a new tax penalty on goods produced by companies that leave the United States.
“Please be forewarned prior to making a very expensive mistake! THE UNITED STATES IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS,” he tweeted.
On the campaign trail he railed against job losses to Asia and Mexico.
“We are living through the greatest jobs theft in the world,” Trump said last month, citing American companies that have laid off workers and moved jobs to India, Singapore and Mexico. “It’s getting worse and worse and worse.”

Boeing F/A-18 "Super Hornet"
Officials at Lockheed Martin and Boeing said that any partnership to manufacture jets in India would not result in a net loss of American jobs but would create Indian employment — about 1,000 positions in the case of Lockheed Martin.
About 300 mechanics on the Fort Worth assembly line would be moved to the F-35 assembly line at the same plant. Others would be given an opportunity to apply for other jobs on the newer F-35, Lockheed officials said, although they concede that some positions would be lost in the move because of attrition or retirements.
“I see this as a great opportunity for all parties involved,” said Randy Howard, director of business development for Lockheed’s integrated fighter group. “It doesn’t take jobs away from the U.S., it extends existing jobs, and not just for Fort Worth but for many other companies around the U.S. that build parts for the F-16.”
Nevertheless, workers in Fort Worth say they are worried about the future.
“Wouldn’t you be?” said Earnest Boone, president of the District Lodge 776, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents Lockheed employees.
In October, the Indian government sent a letter to foreign missions and aerospace manufacturers inquiring about single-engine fighter aircraft that could be manufactured locally.
India wants to co-produce the fighter jets as part of its Make in India program, which has the lofty goal of expanding the manufacturing base to 25 percent of the gross domestic product in the next six years.
Nitin Wakankar, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of Defense, said that the process of selecting the new jet “has not started yet,” so answering detailed questions would be premature.
India’s costly earlier effort to partner with the French company Dassault Aviation for 126 jets unraveled, and the government ended up buying only 36 ready-made Rafale planes this year.
Analysts say Lockheed’s main rival in the single-engine sphere is Sweden’s Saab Group and its Gripen fighter. Chicago-based Boeing also has proposed to make its twin engine F/A-18 in India. Boeing recently took a group of Indian defense journalists on a whirlwind tour of Australia and the United States to show off its program.
The U.S. Air Force is phasing out the F-16 in favor of the F-35 aircraft in coming years and the company has no orders for the F-16 beyond October 2017, but it is seeking other customers and does not plan to dismantle the assembly line just yet.
The F-16 airplane remains one of the most widely used aircraft in the world, and Lockheed is continuing to negotiate deals to sell the fighter to other countries. Those F-16s would be made in India under the deal once the new assembly line was up and running, Howard said. The aircraft has been made in joint ventures with other nations before, but “we’ve never offered our only production line to another country,” Howard said. “It’s unprecedented.”
Lockheed has promised that India would not only manufacture and export its jets, but it also would play a “critical role” in supporting a fleet of about 3,200 F-16s in operation around the world, said Jon Grevatt, an Asia Pacific defense industry analyst with IHS Jane’s, a defense analysis firm. “That’s a big carrot,” he noted.
A potential stumbling block to the deal is the willingness of the U.S. government to part with enough of its mission system technology to make the package palatable to the Indians. The aircraft is viewed negatively by some in the defense establishment here as a dated platform that first rolled off the assembly line in 1978 — despite its current state-of-the-art avionics. Another strike against it, for some, is that it is the fighter aircraft used by archrival Pakistan.
“The F-16 is a good aircraft, it has lived its life, but its time is over,” said Muthumanickam Matheswaran, a retired Indian air force air marshal and analyst.
A greater concern, said Pushan Das, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi, is whether “India wants to be seen as close to the United States and building U.S. fighter aircraft, or does it want to be more politically neutral and choose a partner like Sweden, given the fact that New Delhi needs to manage its relationship with Russia and China. That’s the main thing.”
India’s defense procurement typically moves at a glacial pace. Ashley J. Tellis, a scholar for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in a March paper that the Indian air force is in “crisis” and that its troubled acquisition and development programs threaten its air superiority over rapidly modernizing rivals Pakistan and China. The country hopes to expand its fleet from 36.5 squadrons to as many as 45 squadrons by 2027 — an unlikely prospect, the study found, because of budget constraints, slow procurement and other limitations.
http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2016/12/as-trump-vows-to-stop-flow-of-jobs.html

 

[tharun]

As Trump Vows To Stop Flow Of Jobs OverSeas , U.S. Plans To Make Fighters Jets In India

NEW DELHI — As a new American president bent on retaining American jobs prepares to take office, the Obama administration and the U.S. defense industry are working on a deal with the Indian government to build iconic U.S. combat aircraft in India.
In recent months, Lockheed Martin and Boeing have made proposals to the Indian government to manufacture fighter jets — the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F/A-18 Super Hornet — in India as the country seeks to modernize its rapidly aging fleet of largely Russian-built airplanes.
In both cases, the aviation companies would be building production facilities in India; Lockheed Martin proposes to move its entire F-16 assembly line from Texas to India, making India the sole producer of the single-engine combat aircraft.
The U.S. military is phasing out the F-16 for its own use, but other countries remain as likely customers.
The proposals have the strong backing of the Obama administration, which has sought a closer connection with the Indian military in recent years. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said she was “optimistic” about the prospect of a deal after a visit to New Delhi in August, and Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter is set to return to India this week, with procurement high atop the list of discussion topics.
But the election of a billionaire businessman focused on keeping jobs at home, rather than creating them overseas, has brought a measure of uncertainty to the talks.
“What will be the U.S. policy posture now that the new president-elect is in the mix?” said one high-level official at an American defense firm in India, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal negotiations. “Is he going to continue the policy of engaging in India on co-production and co-development? All of those are unknown at this point.”
On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump appeared at a Carrier plant in Indiana, where his team had brokered a deal to save about 1,000 jobs, and on Sunday he let fire a series of tweets that implied a new tax penalty on goods produced by companies that leave the United States.
“Please be forewarned prior to making a very expensive mistake! THE UNITED STATES IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS,” he tweeted.
On the campaign trail he railed against job losses to Asia and Mexico.
“We are living through the greatest jobs theft in the world,” Trump said last month, citing American companies that have laid off workers and moved jobs to India, Singapore and Mexico. “It’s getting worse and worse and worse.”

Boeing F/A-18 "Super Hornet"
Officials at Lockheed Martin and Boeing said that any partnership to manufacture jets in India would not result in a net loss of American jobs but would create Indian employment — about 1,000 positions in the case of Lockheed Martin.
About 300 mechanics on the Fort Worth assembly line would be moved to the F-35 assembly line at the same plant. Others would be given an opportunity to apply for other jobs on the newer F-35, Lockheed officials said, although they concede that some positions would be lost in the move because of attrition or retirements.
“I see this as a great opportunity for all parties involved,” said Randy Howard, director of business development for Lockheed’s integrated fighter group. “It doesn’t take jobs away from the U.S., it extends existing jobs, and not just for Fort Worth but for many other companies around the U.S. that build parts for the F-16.”
Nevertheless, workers in Fort Worth say they are worried about the future.
“Wouldn’t you be?” said Earnest Boone, president of the District Lodge 776, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents Lockheed employees.
In October, the Indian government sent a letter to foreign missions and aerospace manufacturers inquiring about single-engine fighter aircraft that could be manufactured locally.
India wants to co-produce the fighter jets as part of its Make in India program, which has the lofty goal of expanding the manufacturing base to 25 percent of the gross domestic product in the next six years.
Nitin Wakankar, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of Defense, said that the process of selecting the new jet “has not started yet,” so answering detailed questions would be premature.
India’s costly earlier effort to partner with the French company Dassault Aviation for 126 jets unraveled, and the government ended up buying only 36 ready-made Rafale planes this year.
Analysts say Lockheed’s main rival in the single-engine sphere is Sweden’s Saab Group and its Gripen fighter. Chicago-based Boeing also has proposed to make its twin engine F/A-18 in India. Boeing recently took a group of Indian defense journalists on a whirlwind tour of Australia and the United States to show off its program.
The U.S. Air Force is phasing out the F-16 in favor of the F-35 aircraft in coming years and the company has no orders for the F-16 beyond October 2017, but it is seeking other customers and does not plan to dismantle the assembly line just yet.
The F-16 airplane remains one of the most widely used aircraft in the world, and Lockheed is continuing to negotiate deals to sell the fighter to other countries. Those F-16s would be made in India under the deal once the new assembly line was up and running, Howard said. The aircraft has been made in joint ventures with other nations before, but “we’ve never offered our only production line to another country,” Howard said. “It’s unprecedented.”
Lockheed has promised that India would not only manufacture and export its jets, but it also would play a “critical role” in supporting a fleet of about 3,200 F-16s in operation around the world, said Jon Grevatt, an Asia Pacific defense industry analyst with IHS Jane’s, a defense analysis firm. “That’s a big carrot,” he noted.
A potential stumbling block to the deal is the willingness of the U.S. government to part with enough of its mission system technology to make the package palatable to the Indians. The aircraft is viewed negatively by some in the defense establishment here as a dated platform that first rolled off the assembly line in 1978 — despite its current state-of-the-art avionics. Another strike against it, for some, is that it is the fighter aircraft used by archrival Pakistan.
“The F-16 is a good aircraft, it has lived its life, but its time is over,” said Muthumanickam Matheswaran, a retired Indian air force air marshal and analyst.
A greater concern, said Pushan Das, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi, is whether “India wants to be seen as close to the United States and building U.S. fighter aircraft, or does it want to be more politically neutral and choose a partner like Sweden, given the fact that New Delhi needs to manage its relationship with Russia and China. That’s the main thing.”
India’s defense procurement typically moves at a glacial pace. Ashley J. Tellis, a scholar for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in a March paper that the Indian air force is in “crisis” and that its troubled acquisition and development programs threaten its air superiority over rapidly modernizing rivals Pakistan and China. The country hopes to expand its fleet from 36.5 squadrons to as many as 45 squadrons by 2027 — an unlikely prospect, the study found, because of budget constraints, slow procurement and other limitations.
http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2016/12/as-trump-vows-to-stop-flow-of-jobs.html

Good news that would be good news for Tejas...if possible Saab gripen.. these americans always says that and these but never gives any thing..........

 

[WolfPack86]

Make India Great Again? Fighter Jet Giants Look To Move Production To India

Donald Trump may meet his match when he goes toe-to-toe with another world leader who’s showing prowess at strong-arming American companies into helping make his country great again.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing are the two major companies involved in discussions to build fighter aircraft production plants in India as part of that country’s “Make in India” initiative, which is essentially a mirror-image of President-elect Trump’s aggressive desire to keep manufacturing jobs within the United States. Trump has made retaining blue-collar jobs a post-election priority, and he’s already had a high-profile success in preventing the loss of several hundred jobs at Indiana’s Carrier plant.
“The U.S. is going to substantially reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S. without retribution or consequences, is WRONG!” Trump said in a series of Sunday tweets.
BUDGET CUTS LEAVE MARINE CORPS AIRCRAFT GROUNDED
Trump earlier this week also showed a willingness to go after jet maker Boeing, in particular, when he publicly sparred with the company over the cost of a new Air Force One fleet.
The “Make in India” program, which is the brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to eventually increase the country’s manufacturing base to a quarter of the gross domestic product. So when the Indian government required new jets to replace its aging fleet, any corporation that wanted to be involved knew the planes – an F-16 by Lockheed or F/A-18 by Boeing – would have to be built in India.
“But this is not oursourcing socks here, this is outsourcing military fighter jets,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.
Sekulow’s group has already started a “Petition to Stop Giving Control of our Fighter Jets to Foreign Nations,” and he plans to deliver the demand to Congress later this week. Sekulow told FoxNews.com his office has already received calls from Lockheed workers in Fort Worth who’ve said they’re being given notice, offered severance packages or told they can apply to work on the F-35 program – though, with no guarantee of being accepted.
A Lockheed spokesperson, however, told FoxNews.com the Fort Worth plant was ramping down production anyway as the U.S. Air Force moved on from the antiquated F-16 and switched to the newer F-35 jet.
“So if you look at the big picture here, thousands of jobs have already gone away as we close out the building of F-16s. That’s a given at this point; there’s nothing we can do to change this,” said Randy Howard, the director of business development for Lockheed’s integrated fighter group. “So what our offer does is seek to mediate that. To remedy that. To bring back those jobs as much as possible. It adds jobs in India, but it also brings back jobs in Fort Worth and across the U.S.”
Howard said opening up a plant in India would actually reinstate about 500 Lockheed staff positions that support F-16 production, “predominantly” in the United States. He also guaranteed “all F-16 workers will have a job available to them on the F-35 production line.”
Boeing, too, told FoxNews.com that it’s F/A-18 production line in St. Louis “continues to have a solid future.”
“Our proposal to meet the needs of the Indian Air Force’s fighter requirements entails creating a separate new Super Hornet production facility in India where Boeing has had a presence for more than seven decades,” Boeing said in a statement. “We’re optimistic about the opportunity to continue our work in St. Louis and add a new production line in India which would also create more opportunities for our entire Super Hornet supply chain.”
The “Make in India” program is supported by President Obama’s outgoing administration, which is looking to strengthen ties with India. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Thursday visited India and an official statement said the two countries’ continued cooperation “will strengthen India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.” A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment more specifically on the program.
Sekulow, who said he was first alerted to the India news by former military officers who are a part of his group’s national security team, said he was all for increasing trade and relations with India, but that military manufacturing was a step too far.
“President [Obama] is not very good with lines in the sand,” Sekulow said. “But here’s one he should draw.”
http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2016/12/make-india-great-again-fighter-jet.html

 

[IndianHawk]

Make India Great Again? Fighter Jet Giants Look To Move Production To India

Donald Trump may meet his match when he goes toe-to-toe with another world leader who’s showing prowess at strong-arming American companies into helping make his country great again.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing are the two major companies involved in discussions to build fighter aircraft production plants in India as part of that country’s “Make in India” initiative, which is essentially a mirror-image of President-elect Trump’s aggressive desire to keep manufacturing jobs within the United States. Trump has made retaining blue-collar jobs a post-election priority, and he’s already had a high-profile success in preventing the loss of several hundred jobs at Indiana’s Carrier plant.
“The U.S. is going to substantially reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S. without retribution or consequences, is WRONG!” Trump said in a series of Sunday tweets.
BUDGET CUTS LEAVE MARINE CORPS AIRCRAFT GROUNDED
Trump earlier this week also showed a willingness to go after jet maker Boeing, in particular, when he publicly sparred with the company over the cost of a new Air Force One fleet.
The “Make in India” program, which is the brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to eventually increase the country’s manufacturing base to a quarter of the gross domestic product. So when the Indian government required new jets to replace its aging fleet, any corporation that wanted to be involved knew the planes – an F-16 by Lockheed or F/A-18 by Boeing – would have to be built in India.
“But this is not oursourcing socks here, this is outsourcing military fighter jets,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.
Sekulow’s group has already started a “Petition to Stop Giving Control of our Fighter Jets to Foreign Nations,” and he plans to deliver the demand to Congress later this week. Sekulow told FoxNews.com his office has already received calls from Lockheed workers in Fort Worth who’ve said they’re being given notice, offered severance packages or told they can apply to work on the F-35 program – though, with no guarantee of being accepted.
A Lockheed spokesperson, however, told FoxNews.com the Fort Worth plant was ramping down production anyway as the U.S. Air Force moved on from the antiquated F-16 and switched to the newer F-35 jet.
“So if you look at the big picture here, thousands of jobs have already gone away as we close out the building of F-16s. That’s a given at this point; there’s nothing we can do to change this,” said Randy Howard, the director of business development for Lockheed’s integrated fighter group. “So what our offer does is seek to mediate that. To remedy that. To bring back those jobs as much as possible. It adds jobs in India, but it also brings back jobs in Fort Worth and across the U.S.”
Howard said opening up a plant in India would actually reinstate about 500 Lockheed staff positions that support F-16 production, “predominantly” in the United States. He also guaranteed “all F-16 workers will have a job available to them on the F-35 production line.”
Boeing, too, told FoxNews.com that it’s F/A-18 production line in St. Louis “continues to have a solid future.”
“Our proposal to meet the needs of the Indian Air Force’s fighter requirements entails creating a separate new Super Hornet production facility in India where Boeing has had a presence for more than seven decades,” Boeing said in a statement. “We’re optimistic about the opportunity to continue our work in St. Louis and add a new production line in India which would also create more opportunities for our entire Super Hornet supply chain.”
The “Make in India” program is supported by President Obama’s outgoing administration, which is looking to strengthen ties with India. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Thursday visited India and an official statement said the two countries’ continued cooperation “will strengthen India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.” A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment more specifically on the program.
Sekulow, who said he was first alerted to the India news by former military officers who are a part of his group’s national security team, said he was all for increasing trade and relations with India, but that military manufacturing was a step too far.
“President [Obama] is not very good with lines in the sand,” Sekulow said. “But here’s one he should draw.”
http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2016/12/make-india-great-again-fighter-jet.html

I hope this becomes true. Trump should put a full stop to f16/F18 bogey in India .

Good days ahead for indigenization

 

[indiazain]

If America is willing to sell us Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch Systems and help us with our aircraft carrier technology ,then It might make sence to go for 45 F/A 18 E/F and about 5 F/A 18 -G. ToT would be a big advantage but guess wont happen.

 

[WolfPack86]

Will Make India Net Exporter Of Fighter Aircraft: SAAB

Swedish aerospace major SAAB says it would set up a brand new production line in India if it wins an Indian Air Force (IAF) contract for single-engined combat jets and would make the country a net exporter of such fighters -- once the necessary procedures are in place.
"I think we are the only one right now who is developing brand new next-generation fighters. Even if we are single-engine, we have capability matching any of the other twin-engine aircraft that would be on the market," Jan Widerstrom, Chairman and Managing Director of SAAB India, told IANS in an interview.
SAAB has fielded its next-generation Gripen-E fighters in response to a communication to global manufacturers for their offer for what could be up to 100 jets.
The Grippen, in fact, was among the six jets in the running for an IAF tender floated in 2007 for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA). The bulk of these aircraft were to be manufactured under licence in India. After protracted trials, the choice was narrowed down to two and then to one -- Dasault Aviation's Rafale. With the price negotiations going nowhere, the tender was eventually scrapped and the IAF opted for an off-the-shelf purchase of 36 Rafales.
The final contract was inked only in September 2016 and the jets will begin arriving in September 2019, with the order expected to be completed in 30 months.
Meanwhile, the IAF has also decided to purchase an additional 83 of the indigenously developed and manufactured TEJAS light combat aircraft (LCA) when its original intent was to induct only two squadrons (36 aircraft).
In the midst of all this, the IAF has seen its strength dwindling from the sanctioned 42 combat squadrons to 25 -- with the best it has achieved being 39.
This is largely due to the phasing out of Soviet vintage Mig-21s, MiG-23s and Mig-27s and the unserviceability of many aircraft due to the lack of spares after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Hence the latest proposal to purchase in the region of 100 jets.
These aircraft are expected to be manufactured in the country under the Make in India initiative.
"We are ready to offer full technology-transfer and build-up capability in India not only for manufacturing and production," Widerstrom said, adding: "We are not planning to move an old production line to India. Our offer is to build a brand new production line for the next generation fighters and the next after that. This will be putting India on the aerospace map as a net exporter of fighters."
There is, however, a catch. The export of lethal weapons and systems is a rather gray area, with the Defence Ministry only recently setting in motion the process through which this could be done. Given that India took 25 years to purchase an advanced jet trainer and that the process for the Rafale has taken almost a decade, this could be a prolonged exercise.
Widerstrom was unfazed.
"We would definitely like to see India as a regional manufacturing hub for Gripen global orders in the future. We will fully comply with the Indian government's regulations on export of defence equipment." The company believed the aircraft "would certainly be a good fit for India's requirements".
"Our business model is to work through partnership with countries and companies. We have the full backup of the Swedish government on this," Widerstrom noted.
"India will be part of our global supply chain. We have a European hub in Sweden. We are building up a hub right now in South America in Brazil, supporting that part of the market. What we want here in India is a third hub supporting this part of the market," said Widerstrom.
http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2016/12/will-make-india-net-exporter-of-fighter.html

 

[Mikesingh]

This is similar to the proposals by Lockheed Martin for their F-16 blk 70/72 (IN) and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

Knowing the way we function it would probably take the better part of a decade to decide and another decade to set up assembly lines and another three to four years to roll them out!!

Till then, MiG 21 and MiG 27 - Zindabad!!

 

[airtel]

Why Is Sweden Destroying 96 Powerful Fighter Jets That Could Deter Russia?

Elisabeth Braw
December 7, 2016


Last year the Swedish defense company SAAB made its final delivery of 96 Gripen planes ordered by the Swedish government. Now, despite having thousands of flying hours and many years left, the fighter jets are destined for the scrapheap. The Swedish government is buying even newer Gripen planes.

Gripen C/D is an advanced fighter jet with attack and surveillance capabilities, which unlike its Gripen predecessors is also compatible with NATO standards and thus more easily exportable. SAAB has sold or leased the plane not only to the Swedish government but to South Africa, Hungary, Thailand, the Czech Republic and even to the United Kingdom, which uses the plane for pilot training.

But in 2012, the Swedish parliament voted to place another order, this time for sixty new Gripen E aircraft, to be manufactured with immediate effect. “The government’s order was connected to likely sales to Brazil and Switzerland,” Swedish defense analyst Robert Dalsjö told me. “Because other governments were likely to buy it as well, the idea was that the Swedish government would get the planes more cheaply than it otherwise would.”

The Gripen E is not only larger than the C/D but is also equipped with state-of-the-art radar technology and electronic warfare equipment: important attributes in a country now having to beef up its defense against Russia. Even though it had yet to receive its final C/D delivery, the center-right government of Fredrik Reinfeldt — which had previously made large defense cuts — placed the order for sixty planes. They will be delivered between 2019 and 2026. In addition to boosting the Swedish Air Force, the order was vital to SAAB, which employs some fourteen thousand people. For the past five years Sweden’s defense spending has hovered at a very low 1.1 percent of GDP, compared to 2.6 percent in 1990-1991.

Reinfeldt’s predicament points to a conundrum facing politicians in almost any country with a large defense industry: the home government has a special responsibility in helping its defense companies succeed. “You always have to see a procurement like Gripen E in Sweden in connection with the chances of exporting the product,” said Dr. Hilmar Linnenkamp, a former deputy director of the European Defence Agency who now serves as an advisor at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, a Berlin think tank. “If the home government doesn’t buy the product, it’s seen as poor testimony. Home governments serve as reference customers.”

Initially, the Swedish government thought it had found a Solomonic solution that would allow it to buy the new planes – thus helping both SAAB and the Swedish Air Force – while not unduly burdening the taxpayer and the Swedish Armed Forces, from whose overall budget the funds for the Gripen E planes would be taken. The plan was that SAAB would recycle most of the C/D planes, essentially upgrading them.

By now, that plan has shrunk to recycling just a few parts from sixty of the planes. The government will make some savings, but precisely because parts from the C/D planes are required to make the new planes, the planes will have to be retired early and chopped up, leaving Sweden with a SEK 16.4 billion ($1.8 billion) expense and sixty ultra-new planes instead of 96 somewhat older ones.

Not surprisingly, the government’s plans have stirred up a sharp debate about the wisdom of buying the new planes – or rather, of retiring the 96 perfectly useable C/D planes to use them for parts at a time when Sweden wants to be seen as strengthening its defense. “People are calling the C/D planes old, but they’re actually quite young and have a lot left to give,” said Allan Widman, the chairman of the parliament’s defense committee, who opposes dismantling the planes. “Going from nearly one hundred planes to sixty planes in a worsening security situation is hard to defend.” (Reinfeldt’s government has since been succeeded by social democratic-green coalition, which has thus inherited the conundrum.) Indeed, the planes have an average age of seven years, and even though they have a flying life of or around thirty years or eight thousand hours, they have only flown an average of 1,100 hours. The current average age of the US-made F-16 aircraft is 22.43 years.


Another dilemma facing Sweden’s armed forces is this: which capabilities does the air force in fact need in order to be credible? Gripen E is a spectacular machine that could hold its own against PAK-FA, a Russian plane currently in the prototype phase. But since the Russian air force doesn’t yet own this state-of-the art plane, Dalsjö argues that Sweden could fly its Gripen C/D planes a bit longer to great effect. “And even when the Russians get the PAK-FAs, there are a number of things the C/D planes could do that don’t involve direct duels with top-of-the-line Russians fighters,” he told me. “They could, for example, conduct strikes against ground or naval targets. Or we could sell or lease them to other countries.” Indeed, this spring the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) upgraded the Air Force’s Gripen C/D fleet.

One way out of the conundrum would indeed be to lease or sell the C/D planes to countries interested in them, such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Portugal, Slovakia and Botswana. The government had, however, already committed to handing the planes over to SAAB for recycling of the selected parts. It would also be in SAAB’s and thus Sweden’s interest that such countries instead buy new C/D planes from SAAB.

But Widman – whose fellow center-right politicians have made an about-face and support increased defense spending – argues that Sweden should at least keep some of the old planes. Last month his committee passed a resolution that obliges the government to inform parliament if it wants to sell defense equipment currently in use by the Swedish Armed Forces to other countries. For the resolution to be binding, it has to be passed by parliament. “OK, there’s some cost associated with keeping some of the C/D planes, but the armed forces’ hangars and repair shops are set up for a fleet of 100 planes, so the cost for keeping around 40 of the C/D planes would not be very high,” Widman told me. Jan Hyllander, the Swedish Ministry of Defence’s deputy director-general, did not respond to a request for comment. A key decision-maker in Gripen E procurement declined to comment.

There is, of course, another dilemma: how large should an air force be in order to be credible against an adversary such as Russia? Should it have sixty planes? One hundred? Two hundred? And of which kind? “160 may not be enough, but it’s more enough than sixty,” Widman said. But with the Gripen E procurement signed and sealed, and no elegant compromise in sight, it looks like the 96 Gripen C/D stalwarts will be chopped up after all. The first ten planes will be taken out of service next year.

Elisabeth Braw is a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council.

Image: Saab Gripen at the 2016 Royal International Air Tattoo. Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons/Tim Felce



http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...ng-96-powerful-fighter-jets-could-deter-18660

 

[gadeshi]

Deter Russia armed with heavy fighters using incapable light fighters is not even funny.
It is rediculous.

 

[airtel]

Deter Russia armed with heavy fighters using incapable light fighters is not even funny.
It is rediculous.

National Interest is american Propaganda website .......they will never appreciate Russian technology .

 

[gadeshi]

National Interest is american Propaganda website .......they will never appreciate Russian technology .

It's not about Russian technology.
Even medium fighter cannot survive the battle against the heavy one, what to say about light ones???

Отправлено с моего XT1080 через Tapatalk

 

[WolfPack86]

The fighters jets are F-16 Block 70 and Gripen E both are single engine fighter jet.

Various discussions are going on in media, defense forum, news channels and other sources. Recently in parliament Minister of State of Defense announced single engine fighter jet competition. The news channels channel like Times Now, CNN IBN, NDTV and India Today have started discussion about single engine jet contest. U.S.A and Sweden responded to Indian Government’s request for single engine fighter jet contest. The fighter jets are F-16 Block 70 and another is Gripen E fighter. Forums like Indian Defence.Com, Pakistan Defense Forum have already started discussions about under “Make in India Fighter Jets F-16, F-18 and Gripen E. Various Hindi news channel like Zee News, Aaj Tak started discussion about single engine fighter contest.

According to me single engine fighter contest. Gripen E Fighter Jet has significant edge over American F-16. Because F-16 air frame is 40 year old, more over Pakistan Air Force is using F-16 fighter jet for 40 years. Pakistan Air Force knows everything about F-16 fighter jet. Newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump may decide to keep manufacturing fighter jets with in U.S. and running campaign against shifting F-16 and F-18 assembly line to India. India will buy fighter jets only if there is full transfer technology and transfer of assembly line to India. Meanwhile Sweden promises to transfer complete technology and also help in developing Tejas. Sweden also promised to make India as net exporter of fighter in the world.

Conclusions:

The Sweden Gripen E fighter jet is safe to buy without any risk of being affected by sanctions and supply of weapons. U.S. will not allow India to use its fighter against Pakistan. The U.S. maybe unpredictable and untrustworthy under Trump, we don’t know. Even though Sweden does not manufacture is own engine for Gripen E fighter jet. Now DRDO started to revive Kaveri engine program and France agreed to help in Kaveri engine and finished work in 18 months. By choosing Gripen E fighter India will be safe.


Views expressed above are my own and not copied from any other websites and news articles.

 

[SilentKiller]

The fighters jets are F-16 Block 70 and Gripen E both are single engine fighter jet.

Various discussions are going on in media, defense forum, news channels and other sources. Recently in parliament Minister of State of Defense announced single engine fighter jet competition. The news channels channel like Times Now, CNN IBN, NDTV and India Today have started discussion about single engine jet contest. U.S.A and Sweden responded to Indian Government’s request for single engine fighter jet contest. The fighter jets are F-16 Block 70 and another is Gripen E fighter. Forums like Indian Defence.Com, Pakistan Defense Forum have already started discussions about under “Make in India Fighter Jets F-16, F-18 and Gripen E. Various Hindi news channel like Zee News, Aaj Tak started discussion about single engine fighter contest.

According to me single engine fighter contest. Gripen E Fighter Jet has significant edge over American F-16. Because F-16 air frame is 40 year old, more over Pakistan Air Force is using F-16 fighter jet for 40 years. Pakistan Air Force knows everything about F-16 fighter jet. Newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump may decide to keep manufacturing fighter jets with in U.S. and running campaign against shifting F-16 and F-18 assembly line to India. India will buy fighter jets only if there is full transfer technology and transfer of assembly line to India. Meanwhile Sweden promises to transfer complete technology and also help in developing Tejas. Sweden also promised to make India as net exporter of fighter in the world.

Conclusions:

The Sweden Gripen E fighter jet is safe to buy without any risk of being affected by sanctions and supply of weapons. U.S. will not allow India to use its fighter against Pakistan. The U.S. maybe unpredictable and untrustworthy under Trump, we don’t know. Even though Sweden does not manufacture is own engine for Gripen E fighter jet. Now DRDO started to revive Kaveri engine program and France agreed to help in Kaveri engine and finished work in 18 months. By choosing Gripen E fighter India will be safe.


Views expressed above are my own and not copied from any other websites and news articles.

Bro Gripen uses US made engines..
So for me no to both Gripen and F-16. instead india should invest on 2nd production line for LCA.

 

[WolfPack86]

Bro Gripen uses US made engines..
So for me no to both Gripen and F-16. instead india should invest on 2nd production line for LCA.

Yes you are right we should rope in private companies like tata, mahindra, and kalyani for second line production of tejas mk 1a and finished kaveri engine very quickly. I think govt should scrap single fighter engine tender and should focus on tejas mk 1a and tejas mk 2.

 

[Adioz]

The fighters jets are F-16 Block 70 and Gripen E both are single engine fighter jet.

Various discussions are going on in media, defense forum, news channels and other sources. Recently in parliament Minister of State of Defense announced single engine fighter jet competition. The news channels channel like Times Now, CNN IBN, NDTV and India Today have started discussion about single engine jet contest. U.S.A and Sweden responded to Indian Government’s request for single engine fighter jet contest. The fighter jets are F-16 Block 70 and another is Gripen E fighter. Forums like Indian Defence.Com, Pakistan Defense Forum have already started discussions about under “Make in India Fighter Jets F-16, F-18 and Gripen E. Various Hindi news channel like Zee News, Aaj Tak started discussion about single engine fighter contest.

According to me single engine fighter contest. Gripen E Fighter Jet has significant edge over American F-16. Because F-16 air frame is 40 year old, more over Pakistan Air Force is using F-16 fighter jet for 40 years. Pakistan Air Force knows everything about F-16 fighter jet. Newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump may decide to keep manufacturing fighter jets with in U.S. and running campaign against shifting F-16 and F-18 assembly line to India. India will buy fighter jets only if there is full transfer technology and transfer of assembly line to India. Meanwhile Sweden promises to transfer complete technology and also help in developing Tejas. Sweden also promised to make India as net exporter of fighter in the world.

Conclusions:

The Sweden Gripen E fighter jet is safe to buy without any risk of being affected by sanctions and supply of weapons. U.S. will not allow India to use its fighter against Pakistan. The U.S. maybe unpredictable and untrustworthy under Trump, we don’t know. Even though Sweden does not manufacture is own engine for Gripen E fighter jet. Now DRDO started to revive Kaveri engine program and France agreed to help in Kaveri engine and finished work in 18 months. By choosing Gripen E fighter India will be safe.


Views expressed above are my own and not copied from any other websites and news articles.

Even if they go for a single engine foreign fighter, lets hope they go for Gripen. Its a new aircraft, not like the F-16 which has already been modified beyond the original design. Gripen has a lot of room for future changes and additions. F-16, being an old fighter, has already seen those additions. They are offering us the Block-70, which IMHO cannot be upgraded anymore.

Personally, I would like the Tejas to be heavily invested in and this tender to be cancelled. Alas, I am not in-charge, so I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Hope that this tender is scrapped like the MMRCA tender, but if that has to happen, it needs to happen NOW.

Not sure how much help the French will extend in the case of Kaveri. Lets hope for the best.

 

[SilentKiller]

Even if they go for a single engine foreign fighter, lets hope they go for Gripen. Its a new aircraft, not like the F-16 which has already been modified beyond the original design. Gripen has a lot of room for future changes and additions. F-16, being an old fighter, has already seen those additions. They are offering us the Block-70, which IMHO cannot be upgraded anymore.

Personally, I would like the Tejas to be heavily invested in and this tender to be cancelled. Alas, I am not in-charge, so I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Hope that this tender is scrapped like the MMRCA tender, but if that has to happen, it needs to happen NOW.

Not sure how much help the French will extend in the case of Kaveri. Lets hope for the best.

order 36-60 more rafale and french will offer all help for Kaveri engine.
We need 2nd production line for LCA, no gripen or F-16..
increasing different types of planes in not hepful, cause maintenance nightmares.

 

[HariPrasad-1]

LSA should be the only choice.

 

[WolfPack86]

Even if govt invite private companies to build tejas Hal won't allow to that happen because they are hell bent to keep production line of tejas with them.