$ 10 bn combat jet deal eyes strategic 'leverage'

By India Today

The Indian Air Force is set to acquire 126 medium, multirole combat aircraft (MMRCA) and the current talk in the Vayu Sena Bhavan is to "leverage strategic gains" out of the $ 10-billion deal.As the compilation of the flight test results nears completion, the process of hard bargaining is set to begin.

A senior air force officer told Mail Today: "We should use the deal to get concessions on enrichment technology, and accessing dual use technologies that we are denied at the moment." However, before negotiations on these aspects are addressed, a few steps need to be taken first.

The first shortlist for the six types of aircraft-MiG-35, Rafale, Gripen, Eurofighter, F-16 and F/A 18 Super Hornet - will be prepared by the air force on the basis of "complying with the operational requirements of the Indian Air Force", an official explained.

As is the norm, senior air force officers have remained mostly tight-lipped about which aircraft have or haven't made the cut in terms of fulfilling the operational requirements, although some information seems to have trickled out regarding the flight tests wherein one or two of these six aircraft failed to develop "enough thrust" in the high altitude tests held at Leh.

After the air force lists the aircraft that have complied with its "technical" requirements, the ministry of defence will judge the "offset compliance" of the selected manufacturers. In simple terms, that would mean how much of the money would be ploughed back into the Indian economy.The 'offset' requirement for the MMRCA deal is 50 per cent. This means that close to $ 5 billion would have to be reinvested into India by the company winning the bid.

After this, the "commercial bids" of each would be opened by the defence ministry mandarins, who will, for the first time, examine the commercial offers made by the companies more than two years ago.

For the first time, a new system of costfixing has been introduced that not only takes into account the unit prices but also calculates the 'life cycle costs'-which takes into account the cost of maintenance and spares for the period, estimated at 40 years, the aircraft would remain operational.

On the basis of this, the lowest bidder (L1) would be determined by a commercial negotiation committee headed by an additional secretary of the ministry. The committee will also have members of the service headquarters of the army, navy and air force. They would then conduct price negotiations with the L1 bidder to improve upon the initial offer.

Finally, a paper would be prepared for the Cabinet Committee on Security that would have to give its seal of approval and award the contract. It is at this stage, before the contract is awarded, that government-to-government negotiations would be conducted to get the best additional benefits for the country.

The sheer size of the MMRCA deal ensures that India will get a high level of attention from each of country vying for the largest defence contract in recent memory.

India is evaluating the advanced Patriot ground-based air defence system

By PTI

India is evaluating the advanced Patriot ground-based air defence system for its ballistic missile shield and the US has provided “classified” material to it on the weapon unit, which was successfully used during both Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Patriot’s manufacturer Raytheon said today.

A number of exchanges have taken place between the government of India and the US and information has been given to India at the classified level,” Joseph Garret, Vice President of the company’s Patriot Programmes told PTI.

Replying to questions, he said tests of the Patriot system, which has been procured by 12 countries, by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation and other agencies had been “highly successful”.

On India developing its own missile defence shield, Garret said, “Patriot system gives a major boost to any country’s defence capability. India may be developing its own system, but Patriot is a combat-proven weapon system.”

Another senior official of Raytheon, a defence and aerospace major, said Washington and New Delhi have also discussed the issue of India-specific end-user accords.“If the US government gives a go-ahead, Raytheon will step in,” he said.

Since its production began in 1980, more than 170 Patriot fire units and over 9,000 have been delivered by the company.The countries which have acquired the weapon system, were Germany, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Japan, Israel, Taiwan, Greece, Spain, South Korea and the UAE.The weapon system’s capabilities were demonstrated in 1990 following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

“Patriot’s performance against Iraqi SCUD missile attacks were impressive, even though the SCUD missiles exceeded Patriot’s design threat,” he said.Top company official Taylor W Lawrence, President of Raytheon’s Missile Systems, said India is also looking at the ‘Javelin’ anti-tank and anti-armour missile ‘and a ‘letter of intent’ is expected to be issue soon.“Javelin has been fully tested by the Indian land forces. We expect a letter of intent from the Indian government,” he said.

India in talks for buying 57 additional Hawk advanced trainers

BY: PTI

India is in the process of finalising with the UK the terms of reference for buying an additional 57 Hawk advanced trainer for the Indian Air Force, minister of state for defence MM Pallamraju said today.“The government has decided to exercise the option of buying an additional 57 Hawk trainer jets manufactured by the British Aerospace. Details of the contract and the terms of reference of the deal are being negotiated with the UK,” Pallamraju, who is leading Indian delegation to the Farnborough Air Show, the biggest in the world, told PTI.

India, which had earlier signed a deal for purchase of the two-seater Hawk trainer planes, has already received 24 of the single-engine aircraft in a fly-away condition. Of the another 42 of the planes, which were to be produced by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, six have been supplied to the IAF.The Hawk, which can also be used as a combat aircraft, provides advance stage three training to IAF pilots. It can fly at a maximum speed of 1.2 times the speed of sound.

The minister, who is on a six-day visit to the UK, refused to give a time-frame for finalising the terms of reference of the multi-billion dollar deal.The Hawk is used by the Royal Air Force and 900 of them have supplied to 18 countries so far.Pallamraju, who has been interacting with top armament manufacturers in Farnborough, said he told them that they stand a better chance of bagging orders from India if they agree to make the country self-reliant in weapon systems.

The minister, who arrived in London on Saturday, had met top brass of Russian weapons manufacturers, British Aerospace, EADS, Saab, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. He has also had a meeting with Prince Andrew, who is Britain’s ambassador for industry.Many of the firms Pallamraju interacted with are bidding for the 126 multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) India is proposing to buy. He also had meetings with Israeli arms producers.Pallamraju said he conveyed to international arms producers that India has initiated the “buy and make policy” under which any Indian company entering into a contract with a foreign firm has to manufacture 50% of its systems in the country in terms of value to allow job creation. The rest 50% can be imported, he said.

“The modes of acquisition have been several. One is to buy directly from a foreign company, another is to purchase and ensure transfer of technology while yet another is to buy and make in India. We have given a message to the defence public sector undertakings to get the latest technology under the buy and make policy without involving outright purchases,” the minister said.

The buy and make policy also involves availability of spares for weapon systems in times of emergency and ensures that India becomes self-reliant, he said, adding that the effort is to ensure that the best available technology comes in.

“I have had an opportunity in Farnborough to see the the technology offers by armament manufacturers. I have also had occasions to discuss a number of issues which had been outstanding,” Pallamraju said.

Boeing ready to work on Next Gen cockpit ,Conformal fuel tank for F-18SH

BY: IDRW NEWS NETWORK

Boeing in recent presentation “The Strike Fighter Evolution” have promised to further improve F-18SH platform for Export customers , New improved F-18 SH will have Next Generation Cockpit , Conformal Fuel tanks, Enhanced engine performance,internal IRST and Enclosed weapons pod ,Yes you heard it right “Enclosed weapons pod” is very similar to conformal weapon bay but mounted on a pylon .

Biggest military deal: Six subs for Rs 50,000 crore

By Times Of India

NEW DELHI: If you thought the Rs 42,000 crore project to procure 126 multi-role fighters for the IAF was the "mother of all defence deals", think again. The stage is now being set for an even bigger project—this one worth over Rs 50,000 crore for six new-generation submarines for the Indian Navy.

The Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC), chaired by defence minister A K Antony, has finally decided that three of the six submarines will be constructed at Mazagon Docks (MDL) in Mumbai and one at Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL) in Visakhapatnam, with the help of a foreign collaborator.

"The other two submarines will either be imported from the foreign vendor directly or constructed at a private shipyard in India. Fresh estimates show each of these six diesel-electric submarines will cost almost Rs 8,500 crore," a source said.

Under the programme—called Project-75 India (P-75I)—apart from stealth, land-attack capability and the ability to incorporate futuristic technologies, all the six new submarines will be equipped with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems to boost their operational capabilities.

Conventional diesel-electric submarines have to surface every few days to get oxygen to recharge their batteries. With AIP systems, they can stay submerged for much longer periods, narrowing the gap with nuclear-powered submarines which can operate underwater for virtually unlimited periods.

The selection of the foreign collaborator for P-75I will, of course, take time because a RFP (request for proposal) will first have to be issued to submarine manufacturers like Rosoboronexport (Russian), DCNS/Armaris (French), HDW (German) and Navantia (Spain). Shortlisting and detailed technical and commercial negotiations will follow, before the actual contract can be inked.

Navy has reasons to be worried. By 2015 or so, it will be left with just half of its present fleet of 15 ageing diesel-electric submarines—10 Russian Kilo-class, four German HDW and one Foxtrot. Moreover, it has been hit hard by the almost three-year delay in the ongoing Project-75 for six French Scorpene submarines at MDL, under which the vessels were to roll out one per year from 2012 onwards, with price escalation pushing the total cost beyond Rs 20,000 crore, as was first reported by TOI.

For P-75I, the second line of submarines, the navy was keen on a private domestic shipyard to tie-up with the foreign vendor since it felt MDL was already "overloaded" with orders and quick delivery schedules were "critical".

But the DAC has decided otherwise, holding that the infrastructure and capabilities acquired by MDL in the Scorpene project could not be allowed to go waste. "Let’s hope thing go smoothly now, and instead of 10 years, the navy gets its first submarine under P-75I in six to seven years," an official said.

Submarines can be game-changers in any conflict. And if they are armed with nuclear-tipped missiles, they provide the most effective strategic deterrent available around the world at this point of time. The US and Russia, after strategic arms reduction pacts, in fact, plan to retain over 60% of their nuclear weapons in the shape of SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) fitted on nuclear-powered submarines called "boomers", or SSBNs.

Though India does not have nuclear submarines and SLBM capabilities at present to complete its "nuclear triad", it hopes to move forward by inducting the Akula-II class attack submarine K-152 Nerpa on a 10-year lease from Russia in October this year, and then the first indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant by early-2012. Pakistan, incidentally, already has its first Mesma AIP-equipped submarine, PNS Hamza, the third of the French Agosta-90B submarines it has inducted since 1999. It is now looking to induct three advanced Type-214 German submarines with AIP. China, in turn, has 62 submarines, with 10 of them being nuclear-propelled.

CCS nod for project for nuclear, biological, chemical defence

By The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Security has cleared a Rs 285 crore defence ministry project for developing systems and equipment for protection against nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons and leakages. "Under the project for NBC defence, DRDO has been tasked to develop quick and fast detection systems in case of an NBC attack on our vital installations and cities or leakage in any of the installations dealing with these materials," defence ministry officials said in New Delhi.

"In case on any attack or leakages, such detection systems will help in finding the exact sources of contamination and the authorities concerned would be able to react in a much more effective manner," they added. The DRDO is also working on developing and increasing the number of systems for providing individual protection for soldiers in NBC environment.

Sources said to protect human beings from getting exposed to NBC radiation, "Unmanned Ground Vehicles and robots are also being developed to go to the contaminated zones. We are also looking at the medical management in times of such incidents." Inflatable structures are also being developed in which people can take shelter during any such incident, they added.

Till now, the focus was on building underground shelters while preparing for such eventualities. The project got the CCS nod in a recently held meeting chaired by the Prime Minister and work on developing the systems has already started as different labs have already been told about the systems to be developed. With the increasing threat of use of NBC weapons by state and non-state actors, Indian armed forces have been preparing themselves by deploying protection suites for their personnel.