Lockheed Martin May Outsource Production of Aegis Missile Defense System to India

[pyromaniac]

U.S. defence industry giant Lockheed Martin said it is open to using some Indian components if chosen to supply the country's navy with its Aegis ballistic missile defense system.

"Because of the way the Aegis combat system is constructed, there is the ability to put specific indigenous capabilities in portions of it," Ric Rushton, director for sea-based missile defense at the firm, said late Monday.

He said the system is built on the principle of "open architecture", allowing countries buying it to use parts made at home, in the same way Japan and South Korea did.

Those countries, the two top U.S. allies in Asia, have naval destroyers equipped with Lockheed's high-tech Aegis system, which is designed to track incoming missiles and shoot them down.

"A similar model could work in India if that's what they are interested in," said Rushton, who was in Singapore for the IMDEX Asia 2009 maritime defense show, which opened Tuesday.

Rushton said no decision had been made by India.

"It's their timeline. I think they are looking to make a decision sometime this year," he said.

"I'm very optimistic about it. I think there is a solid operational requirement on the part of the Indian navy, they need this kind of capability."

Lockheed Martin May Outsource Production of Aegis Missile Defense System to India | India Defence

 

[LETHALFORCE]

wow this is great news.

 

[SATISH]

Well I see it as carrot dangling sir. Eventhough it is a proven system i will have my money on developing the Arrow 3 with Israel.

 

[Pintu]

^^^ May be Satish, but I would prefer our own home grown PAD and AAD over them, as because in my opinion we should give our priority to our own home grown system which is very successful till now while testing.

Regards

 

[LETHALFORCE]

i wonder if this comes with a condition for the MRCA choice.

 

[youngindian]

i think india shoud go with aegis as it is proven system as well as our home grown system like pad and aad.like israel they has pac3 arrow2 and they are developing arrow 3

 

[kuku]

Is all this Aegis sound about the Project-17A?

That's like a big contract, might attract a lot of the MMRCA type of attention with everyone going gaga over customization and offsets. (not that its a bad thing, more money coming back to Indian firms)