Saab looking to pitch Gripen again

Illusive

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Foreign Fighter jet makers eye Indian riches after scaled-back French deal

Foreign fighter jet makers see a multi-billion dollar opportunity in India's decision to scale back purchases of high-end aircraft from France, which may free up cash in the world's largest arms importer to buy a new fleet of mid-range planes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last week that India would buy 36 French Rafale jets for an estimated $4.3 billion, in effect ending talks on a larger deal for 126 planes that would have sucked up some $20 billion and locked rivals out of the market for a generation.

Sweden's Saab and US Lockheed Martin are set to re-pitch their Gripen and F-16 planes, eliminated in the Rafale tender, as the kind of lighter, single-engine aircraft that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Monday the air force needed to rebuild its fleet.

"We are here and we are ready," said a source close to Saab. Saab was proposing to establish "fully-fledged production" of the Gripen in India alongside a local partner.


Lockheed Martin may also tout its F-16, one of the most widely used fighter planes in the world, as a replacement for Russian-made MiGs that are a mainstay in India's fleet, industry
sources said. Lockheed Martin declined to comment.

"The light combat aircraft opportunity is going to be there in the near future because the MiGs have to be replaced really fast," said Delhi-based defence commentator and analyst Neelam Mathews.

Russia, traditionally India's largest arms supplier, is hopeful it can sell more of its Sukhoi Su-30s, a plane partly assembled in India, to tide over the air force while it waits two years to receive the first Rafales.

Foreign manufacturers have also welcomed India's decision to negotiate directly with the French government for further Rafales.

"What is positive about the announced Rafale deal is that purchase is supposed to be based on a government-to-government agreement. We have been asking the Indian side for a long time to get back to this practice instead of tenders," said one Russian diplomat.

Moscow wants to speed up the conclusion of talks with India for the joint manufacture of a new generation stealth fighter jet, the diplomat said.

TWO-FRONT CHALLENGE

India needs to replenish an air force fleet that has fallen to 34 operational squadrons, down from 39 earlier this decade and below the government-approved strength of 42 considered necessary to face a two-front challenge from Pakistan and China.

Parrikar said on Monday that India needed 100 new light combat aircraft within five years to replace the MiG-21s, and that the heavier and pricier Rafale was not the plane to do it.

His preference would be for the indigenously-made Tejas to fill the void. But Parrikar himself has admitted the jet, in development for three decades, has limitations while the latest
version still awaits final clearance.


Either way, air force officials and industry sources say India is unlikely to buy anything like the 126 planes agreed in the original deal with France after all-in costs doubled to an estimated $20 billion.

Parrikar said he had not decided how many more Rafales he might buy. Manufacturer Dassault Aviation could also pitch its single-engine Mirage if India opts for something cheaper.

Foreign planemakers may need to join forces with an Indian state-run or private partner to win orders, especially if Modi is to realise his goal of developing a military industrial base.

Under the original deal with Dassault, 108 of the jets were to be produced at a state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) plant. But the two sides could not agree terms.

Such disagreements could open up opportunities for nascent private players to partner foreign manufacturers and build locally, experts said.

"This could be Rafale, or any other aircraft as long as the government is able to address the core issues of tech transfer, joint production and design collaboration," said M. Matheswaran, a former Air Marshal and adviser to Hindustan Aeronautics.
Saab is beating a dead horse, India would be foolish to buy gripen, when tejas is being developed for a similar role and config.
 

Zebra

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If someone else helped IAF to become Imported Air Force, now what the hell poor Parrikar do....!

Tell IAF to order more Tejas.
 

Khagesh

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Any talks of Gripen will give a new lease of life to Congress.

Once rejected by IAF as not being good enough to get something like Gripen in would immediately make Rahul and Kejri look like Maha-Deshbhaktas :D.
 

sathya

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Maharashtra CM pitching in for gripen ?

Damn some sane politician should come and pitch in for second production line for tejas in their state.. With tax sops..
 

Rowdy

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The small category must exclusively filled by Tejas and Tejas Mk II.
 

Zebra

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Gripen E/F vs F-16 V.

All of them 'Make in India'.

Fighter jet makers eye Indian riches after scaled-back French deal | Reuters

Business | Thu Apr 16, 2015 7:54pm IST
NEW DELHI | By Tommy Wilkes and Douglas Busvine

(Reuters) - Foreign fighter jet makers see a multi-billion dollar opportunity in India's decision to scale back purchases of high-end aircraft from France, which may free up cash in the world's largest arms importer to buy a new fleet of mid-range planes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last week that India would buy 36 French Rafale jets for an estimated $4.3 billion, in effect ending talks on a larger deal for 126 planes that would have sucked up some $20 billion and locked rivals out of the market for a generation.

Sweden's Saab (SAABb.ST) and U.S. Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) are set to re-pitch their Gripen and F-16 planes, eliminated in the Rafale tender, as the kind of lighter, single-engine aircraft that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Monday the air force needed to rebuild its fleet.

"We are here and we are ready," said a source close to Saab. Saab was proposing to establish "fully-fledged production" of the Gripen in India alongside a local partner.

Lockheed Martin may also tout its F-16, one of the most widely used fighter planes in the world, as a replacement for Russian-made MiGs that are a mainstay in India's fleet, industry sources said. Lockheed Martin declined to comment.

"The light combat aircraft opportunity is going to be there in the near future because the MiGs have to be replaced really fast," said Delhi-based defence commentator and analyst Neelam Mathews....
 

JBH22

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DOn't tell that MoD will burden IAF logistics with multiple platforms :(
 

Illusive

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I want the MMRCA saga in our history books:p, want the children to learn what we had to go through all these years and the mistakes made, hell it can even be a great case study from management perspective.

@JBH22 Say what you will of the logistic problem, but 50 60 yrs down the line we'll have a hell of a aircraft museum to show off:rofl: IAF ''collector or aircrafts".
 
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Zebra

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Now people wants roses without thorns.

Do French sell it...!
 

Zebra

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^^

stuff it....!

 
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sorcerer

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The key to operational effect is to get fighters airborne when needed. That’s why Gripen is designed to make sure that availability is maximized at all times. For instance, Gripen can operate from a road strip of only 16 x 800 metres. In this film you will get a picture what makes Gripen always combat ready.
 

Johny_Baba

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Saab's president and CEO, Micael Johansson, has told reporters of his ‘extreme frustration' at the lack of recent sales of the company's Gripen combat aircraft.

Speaking to Janes and other defence media at the company's Stockholm headquarters on 26 August, Johansson conceded that the single-engined ‘Euro-canard' had struggled to meet the export expectations that his predecessors had laid out for the multirole fighter, saying that this was not a reflection on the quality of the aircraft, but was down to politics.

“It is extremely frustrating to say the least, and I can say that it is not about the [Gripen] product that we have developed and manufactured. If it had been a completely level playing field in terms of not talking about security, politics, and other areas, then I think we would have been much better off [in terms of securing sales],” Johansson said, adding, “In many countries, the leverage of the US is tremendous. They are not so easy to work against [in the market], and it is politics.”

Johansson's comments came on the back of a fallow few years in terms of securing additional sales for either its earlier Gripen C/D or its latest Gripen E/F range, with international sales campaigns having scored no successes since Brazil joined the Gripen E/F programme in 2014.

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looks like it's over for Gripen E before it could become a hit lightweight multirole fighter, except Brazil there isn't much demand for this
forward it to @Sancho on twitter lol
 

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