India, France sign $6 bn deal on Surface to Air Missile

[WMD]

India, France sign $6 bn deal on Surface to Air Missile
SOURCE: PTI

India and France today concluded negotiations on the Short Range Surface to Air Missile nearly worth of $6 billion during the talks between French President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also said talks on $10-billion deal for Rafale fighter aircraft are "progressing well".

After a comprehensive talks, the leaders said views were exchanged on a number of bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of common interest including defence ties, civil nuclear cooperation, counter-terrorism and situation in Mali.

Observing that India is Hollande's first Asian destination for a bilateral trip, Singh said this demonstrates the importance of this relationship between the two countries.

"President Hollande and I exchanged views on a number of bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of common interest. We reviewed progress on the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project and reiterated our commitment to its early implementation as soon as the commercial and technical negotiations, which have made good progress, are completed," Singh said at a joint press event after the talks.

Expressing satisfaction with the progress in defence cooperation, Singh said, "Discussions on the MMRCA contract are progressing well. We have also concluded negotiations on the Short Range Surface to Air Missile, which, once approved by the Government, will be co-developed and co-produced in India," while noting that the defence ties were poised to reach a qualitatively new level.

The Rs 30,000 crore worth of SR-SAM project is a co- development joint venture between India and France and would be developed by MBDA of France and DRDO from the Indian side. The surface to air missile defence system would be deployed by the IAF and the Navy.

Hollande, also accompanied by a large contingent of French business leaders, including Dassault chief executive Eric Trappier, whose company is hoping to seal the deal to sell 126 Rafale warplanes to India in the world's biggest defence contract currently under negotiation.

On his part, Hollande said he has come to take the Indo-French strategic partnership to "yet another level" while noting that the defence cooperation reflects India's trust for French technology and France's trust for use of technology by India. "India is a country of peace", the French President added.

The two sides also inked four pacts, including one in the field of railways.

 

[Defcon 1]

Already posted in sticky thread for air defence system

 

[prestigiousindian]

Well well designed in France manufactured in India... They dont do anything but sill wud say MBDA and DRDO....

 

[Bhadra]

All due to failures of DREDOs .. Trishule has not taken off the ground for last 30 years...

Somehow, they select the names of their weapon systems to denigrade Indian beliefs and faith. Trishule fails .. Huh...
Now tell me why this joint venture after many DREDOs have gone home on pension earning hefty in the name of that reserch programme !! ??

 

[Armand2REP]

India is saying bye bye Russia... hello FRANCE! :balle:

 

[Apollyon]

India is saying bye bye Russia... hello FRANCE!

are you by any chance a arms dealer or a middlemen or work as subcontractor for bigger defense firms and will benefit from these deals ?

 

[roma]

India is saying bye bye Russia... hello FRANCE! :balle:

wellllllll ...... not at all really ....... just saying welcome france, after saying mornin' to russia and usa .... and looking this way and that , wonderin' where good ol' uk has disappeared to ? ?? .......::shocked:

 

[Armand2REP]

wellllllll ...... not at all really ....... just saying welcome france, after saying mornin' to russia and usa .... and looking this way and that , wonderin' where good ol' uk has disappeared to ? ?? .......::shocked:

They got the Hawk trainer consolation prize.

 

[WMD]

In the works for years, negotiations have been successfully concluded by India and France to develop and produce their proposed short-range surface to air missile (SR-SAM), designated 'Maitri'. This was revealed by the Indian Prime Minister yesterday after he met with visiting French President Hollande.

More information on the SR-SAM programme from earlier posts:

The partnership began in 2007 as part of the umbrella government-to-government agreement between India and France on missiles.

The ownership of the Maitri programme will be fully Indian. With baseline technologies from the now defunct Trishul SAM programme, the Maitri programme basically envisages the sale of certain key technologies by MBDA to DRDO (seeker, endgame avionics, thrust vector control, propulsion modifications), though production will not be under a corporate joint venture on the lines of BrahMos, but would rather be carried out entirely by Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL), India's state-owned munitions production agency.

The Maitri is being built in two basic variants -- a ship-borne point defence and tactical air defence version for the Navy and a land-based self-propelled (wheeled and tracked) launcher-based system for the Air Force and Army.


http://livefist.blogspot.in/2013/02/finally-indo-french-sr-sam-agreement.html

 

[ladder]

Nod for short-range surface-to-air missile soon

A final nod from the Indian government on the Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (SR SAM) project is expected shortly. The project involves joint development of short-range surface-to-air missile for the three services by technology transfer from European MBDA in joint development with DRDO and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) as the production agency.
The announcement of completion of negotiations between the two governments was made in a joint statement during French President Francoise Hollande's visit to India in February. Loic Piedevache, country head, MBDA, said, "We are expecting the project to be finalised very shortly. We look at India as a long-term strategic partner."

The missile is to be developed in two variants — ship-based variant for the Navy and land-based for the Indian Army as well as the IAF.

The consortium's another flagship project Milan 2T is expected to be further extended and contract for the same is likely to be signed "soon" according to Piedevache. "The modalities of production are still in discussion phase with BDL," he said.

It may be noted that the Defence Acquisition Council recently approved procurement of additional Milan 2T portable anti-tank missiles for the infantry. This, when the original manufacturer has moved to a more advanced extended range (ER) version of the missile.

BDL has so far produced 1, 2 and 2T versions of the missile. The consortium's PARS 3LR missile has also been one of the contenders for arming HAL's Rudra platform along with Israel. While the field evaluation trials were completed about a year ago in Sweden, a final decision from the MoD and the Army is awaited. HAL had handed over the first weapon systems integrated version of ALH to the Army in Aero India 2013.

While the increasing importance to the strategic cooperation between India and France was further underlined during former foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai's Paris visit in June that listed 'defence' as one of the pillars of strategic cooperation between the two nations, the DRDO in September 2011 had inked a deal with Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) for increased cooperation between the two nations.

The consortium which has been working with the British MoD on various funded missile projects has also made presentations to the Indian agencies according to its UK officials.

(This correspondent is travelling to Germany and the UK on invitation from MBDA)

Nod for short-range surface-to-air missile soon - Indian Express