India Upset At Russian Military Parts Supply

Armand2REP

CHINI EXPERT
New Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2009
Messages
13,811
Likes
6,734
Country flag
India Upset At Russian Military Parts Supply

Apr 4, 2011

By Asia-Pacific Staff
New Delhi

When it comes to Russian aerospace products, conventional wisdom is: The equipment is good, the after-market is awful.

Ask the Indian air force (IAF) and its officials would emphatically agree. Sourcing of spares and consumables for its Russian-built aircraft and weapon systems has sunk to a new low for the IAF, with the government permitting it to issue multiple global tenders for spares across a range of systems. The move marks a striking break from the Indian defense ministry's traditional practice of contracting spares from original equipment manufacturers via Rosoboronexport.

Now the IAF is turning to vendors in Europe, Israel and the U.S. to respond to an urgent spares call for Russian-built equipment it has in inventory.

There are more than 25 tenders on the street, with more floated each day. The service needs everything from terminals and transformers for its MiG-29 fighters to main wheels for its Su-30 fleet. It also needs multiple spares for its Il-76/-78 transport fleet, Mi-26 and Mi-17 helicopters and virtually all Russian-built ground radars, including its P-19 Danubes.

The MiG-29 situation may be the most difficult. The aircraft is undergoing an extensive upgrade, which means it needs close to 150 different spare parts, including shield installations, main and nose wheels, video amplifiers and photo diodes, as well as minor items such as transformers, capacitors and resistors.

The issue goes beyond cost and poor relations with its supplier. For the IAF there is a very real day-in, day-out operational cost. For example, Il-78 refueling tankers are suffering from a lack of major parts, hobbling mission rates.

The supply problems are not new. What appears to have changed is that the IAF has finally had enough. Perhaps with more access to Western equipment, it no longer believes it has to put up with years of neglected customer service from Russia. Instead, service leaders say they want an unhindered flow of spares for their aircraft and weapons.

Indian sources indicate that Rosoboronexport—the sales agency for most Russian hardware—had put up multiple roadblocks to an assured spares supply. These variously include demands for price revisions on existing warranties and contracts, demands for advances on warehousing spares and consumables, even demands for fresh contracts.

An official at the Russian Trade Federation in New Delhi, acknowledges that "there are some problems that need attention." But, he adds, "global tenders for type-specific spares may be counter-productive. Also, price and economy of scale will be a major problem. The two sides need to work out these differences and get on with it."

Russia in the past has punished customers who have tried to circumvent its supply chain by effectively restricting all support for the system in question.

A senior IAF officer familiar with the acquisition process says "it is an historic fact that after-sales relations with the Russians have always been shaky. That could be understood, if not forgiven, under the Soviet Union, but we have wasted too much time putting up with the situation now."

Concerning the current effort to find an alternative source of supply, the officer says "the [IAF] cannot afford to waste precious time and funds contracting for critical spares, when it is the original equipment maker's responsibility to ensure supply on any given day. When you have spares supply problems with an ongoing flagship program like the Su-30MKI, then you know something is very, very wrong."

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NEWS/newsrf.php?newsid=14587
 

SHASH2K2

New Member
Joined
May 10, 2010
Messages
5,711
Likes
730
When we don't have capacity to make even small things on our own we will be facing situation like this too often. I am sure these things can be sorted out easily with Russians but they should be avoided to occur in very first place.
 

amitkriit

New Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
2,463
Likes
1,927
Good at last the romance seems to be ending, ending for good. Indo-Russian relation has graduated from close-partnership to buyer-seller relation. Russia has been trying to exploit our over-dependence on them. By the way what happened to 100% Indigenization of SU-30MKIs?

Total indigenisation of Sukhoi next year: HAL

Realistically speaking we are not in a much better position than Pakistan when it comes to defense hardware, in times of war USA and Russia might arrive at a deal and stop all supplies, this is not USSR we are sourcing our weapon systems from. This also restricts our ability to follow an independent foreign policy.
 

pmaitra

New Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2009
Messages
33,262
Likes
19,600
^^

Excellent point Amit. Russia is not the USSR. While we could close our eyes and depend on the Soviets, Russia seems to be more profit oriented. While India is not Iran, one has to keep in mind the Russia-Iran S-300 saga.
 

kirara

New Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
1
Likes
0
The last delivery of Rafale is expected in 2021, even IAF will buy it, the product line couldn't exist too lange, on the occasion parts supply also will be a problem.

Why IAF don't choose F-35?It is 5th generation fighter, and it isn't much more expensive than Rafale, more than ten countries will use F-35.
 

bose

New Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2010
Messages
4,921
Likes
5,963
Country flag
The last delivery of Rafale is expected in 2021, even IAF will buy it, the product line couldn't exist too lange, on the occasion parts supply also will be a problem.

Why IAF don't choose F-35?It is 5th generation fighter, and it isn't much more expensive than Rafale, more than ten countries will use F-35.
First of all I would like to welcome you to the forum....

The reason is simple... Firstly USA will not give TOT and secondly USA terms and conditions of supply are too restrictive in nature with terms like CISMOA etc etc... and lastly there is trust deficit on USA... you never know when they will come up with sanctions....
 
Last edited:

Kunal Biswas

Member of the Year 2011
New Member
Joined
May 26, 2010
Messages
31,122
Likes
41,041
We believe making our own Industry strong, For that we believe proper transparency in Tot deal ..

Talking about Tot, US is not very keen at delivering Tot regarding sensitive Military Hardware such as F-35 ..

For Example Indian recently purchased P-8I Surveillance Aircraft based on Boing 737, In which 75% of the systems are Indian ..

Why IAF don't choose F-35?It is 5th generation fighter, and it isn't much more expensive than Rafale, more than ten countries will use F-35.
 

Jagdish58

New Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Messages
796
Likes
644
The last delivery of Rafale is expected in 2021, even IAF will buy it, the product line couldn't exist too lange, on the occasion parts supply also will be a problem.

Why IAF don't choose F-35?It is 5th generation fighter, and it isn't much more expensive than Rafale, more than ten countries will use F-35.
We don't believe in so we don't need F-35:thumb:
 
Last edited by a moderator:

ubuntu

Tihar Jail
Banned
Joined
Feb 26, 2014
Messages
472
Likes
279
The last delivery of Rafale is expected in 2021, even IAF will buy it, the product line couldn't exist too lange, on the occasion parts supply also will be a problem.

Why IAF don't choose F-35?It is 5th generation fighter, and it isn't much more expensive than Rafale, more than ten countries will use F-35.

F-35 is a leamon and we also need them in good numbers.

F-35 was US scam to loot itz allies.
 

Articles

Top