Modi government's 'Make in India' gets firepower with LUH deal

[AVERAGE INDIAN]

Narendra Modi government's 'Make in India' gets firepower with LUH deal

The Narendra Modi government is moving swiftly on its plan to indigenise defence production...

The Narendra Modi government is moving swiftly on its plan to indigenise defence production by acquiring 197 light-utility helicopters (LUH) for the armed forces from local firms. It has called a meeting of the domestic companies concerned on October 22 to discuss the request for information (RfI) that was issued in the last week of September.

The government issued an RfI on September 28 to local vendors for reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters (which are LUH) for the Army Aviation Corps (AAC) and the Indian Air Force (IAF), the last date for which is November 28. This follows the termination of the long overdue LUH tender for 197 machines.

The Defence Acquisitions Council led by defence minister Arun Jaitley has decided that the 197 helicopters (that were to be procured from foreign vendors) and 187 helicopters that are in the process of being produced at state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) needed by the armed forces to replace their ageing Cheetah/Chetak fleets will be made in India with foreign collaboration. The step will boost the indigenous defence production sector, and is in tune with Modi's exhortation to global companies to "Make in India".

India sought to address the Chetak/Cheetah obsolescence issue by issuing a request for proposals to foreign manufacturers as far back as 2003. This LUH requirement included 197 aircraft, 133 for the army and the rest to the IAF.

In 2007, India was on the verge of declaring a winner with the Eurocopter AS550 C3 Fennec edging out the Bell Textron 407.

However, the whole competition was nullified and subsequently relaunched as the reconnaissance and surveillance helicopter (RSH) in 2008. The 197-helicopter deal that was scrapped
for the third time over the last decade in August had Russia's Kamov-226T and the Eurocopter AS550 C3 Fennec locked in competition since 2008.
Repeated delays in procuring new LUHs resulted in the AAC and the IAF opting for 30-35 stopgap Cheetahs from HAL three years ago.

HAL, which is currently working on developing 187 three-tonne LUHs sanctioned by the Cabinet Committee on Security in February 2009 for the armed forces, targets a first flight by next year. With the scrapping of the RSH/LUH programme, HAL has the opportunity to make up for lost time and ensure no further slippages in acquiring systems and getting the chopper off the ground on time next year.

According to a senior official at HAL, "The company's helicopter division has decided to push full throttle on the LUH programme. Land has been acquired in Tumkur in Karnataka for manufacturing the indigenous LUH where a full-fledged helicopter facility is being set up to deal with growing market for the helicopters in the country."

Commenting on the development, HAL chairman RK Tyagi said, "This will give a boost to indigenisation, and HAL and other organisations have the confidence to take on the challenge."

Narendra Modi government's ‘Make in India’ gets firepower with LUH deal - Financial Express

 

[sgarg]

Re: Narendra Modi government's 'Make in India' gets firepower with LUH

India needs several types of helicopters. Not only light, but medium, heavy helicopters are needed in good numbers. HAL also has to build armed helicopters in large numbers.

It makes perfect sense to give small helicopter to private company. HAL is not optimized for high volume production. HAL production processes are tuned to low volume production. Private companies will work better in the area of high volume production.

A private company will take 2 years to set up the plant and 7-8 years to churn out 400 helicopters. The whole project will be over in ten years. If left to HAL, the project is unlikely to complete in 20 years.

 

[rohit b3]

Re: Narendra Modi government's 'Make in India' gets firepower with LUH

It should have been "Develop in India", instead of "Make in India".

 

[Sylex21]

Re: Narendra Modi government's 'Make in India' gets firepower with LUH

"Make in India" is much more important than "develop in India". What India needs most is factories and infrastructure. While the process is slow, India has been making great strides in developing indigenous designs. However a country cannot make cutting edge military hardware over night, countries such as the USA have had 50-100 years and India is too new to catch up so fast so quickly. What India needs above all else is for the plants, skilled workers, tools, machines, supply lines, and factories to be in place so that by the time it is ready to produce world class military hardware the factories can be converted quickly. In a war it is important that India be able to produce replacements for its military losses regardless of who owns the intellectual property rights or designed the jet/tank/helicopter etc... Yes long term it would be ideal with India produced all its products, but the country is not there yet and forcing the transition too fast will cause the Indian military to end up with sub-standard products.

Right now India's biggest advantage over China is that it is able to purchase the best of the best from western nations and around the world. If India went solely indigenous it would be an industry far behind China's and put the Indian military further behind.

 

[archie]

Re: Narendra Modi government's 'Make in India' gets firepower with LUH

I would like to see HAL split to divisions and get private companies into the divisions to expand them and make their own small companies.. That way we can have a host of companies that is specalized in each segment