Indian Military

India has settled on the GE-414 engine to power the indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk-2. The Price Negotiating Committee for the Alternate Engine of the LCA Mk-2 issued a statement on Thursday, saying that it had finalized the Comparative Statement of Tenders. “After evaluation and acceptance of the Technical offer provided by both Eurojet and GE Aviation, the commercial quotes were compared in detail and GE Aviation was declared as the lowest bidder,” said the statement.

The statement was issued two days after Defense Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony’s visit to the United State, where he held meetings with US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Admiral Mike Mullen. It also came on a fairly heavy news day, with the country’s complete attention focused on a verdict of the Allahabad High Court on the highly contentious issue of the disputed ownership of a property where a mosque was demolished in 1992, itself alleged to have been been built on the site of the birthplace of the Hindu God Ram.

Almost two years after the 26/11 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, Swedish defense company Saab has won a contract to supply a coastal surveillance system for the entire Indian coast.

The contract, awarded by India’s Director General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL), is worth 116 million Swedish Kronor, around USD 16 million.

A statement issued by the company said the system comprises sensors to be installed along the Indian coast and equipment for regional and national control centers.

The statement adds that the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and Directorate General of Shipping will also operate the system.

Saab will begin implementing the project, which includes installation, commissioning, training and support, immediately and expects to complete the execution in around 18 months in partnership with India’s Elcome Marine Services

The statement quoted Gunilla Fransson, head of Saab´s Security and Defense Solutions unit as saying, “Our systems for monitoring sea traffic have been installed on several of the coasts in the world and also along inland waterways in Europe and in China.

Swedish defense major Saab is planning to get three Gripen NG aircraft to Aero India, the air show in Bangalore due to be held next month. Inderjit Sial, head of Saab in India told StratPost that while two of the aircraft would conduct flight displays, the third would be on static display. The aircraft is in the race to win the Indian Air Force (IAF) tender for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).

The company is also flying in two other aircraft, the Saab 2000, which it is pitching in response to the Indian Navy’s Request for Information (RFI) for Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft, as well as the Saab 340, a 34-seater aircraft in which the company hopes to interest the Indian Coast Guard in association with the Indian company, Punj Lloyd. The Coast Guard is expected to lease a total of 12 aircraft for maritime patrol.

Saab will also display its RBS-15 Anti-Ship Missile and its Giraffe MB radar which it hopes to offer the Indian Navy as part of a network of coastal defense batteries, as well as its RBS-70 MANPADS missile system and HARD radar, which it is pitching to the Indian armed forces.

India’s air show in Bangalore next week will be the largest ever with 29 countries bringing their aerospace products, including fighter jets and transport aircraft, for showcasing at the five-day event.

The biennial Aero India 2011 will for the first time witness the civil aviation sector overtaking military aviation. The air show will see 54 percent of the aircraft, helicopters and aerospace systems from the civilian sector compared to 46 percent from the military sector.

“This year’s air show will surpass all previous figures in terms of participating countries, companies, space and business. All inputs show a healthy growth than the previous edition of Aero India. Civil aviation sector at 54 percent will overtake military aviation content at 46 percent in this year’s show,” Secretary of Defense Production Raj Kumar Singh told reporters here on Tuesday.

To be held at the Yelahanka Air Force Station, this year’s show has been oversubscribed in terms of exhibition space and the Defense Exhibition Organization has had to refuse further bookings, he said.

The Indian Ministry of Defense has opened bids for the tri-service purchase of Very Short Range Air Defense (VSHORAD) systems. The initial purchase is for 5185 units.

Five vendors have submitted bids for their products. Russian Rosoboron Export is fielding a version of the IGLA to compete with Thales and South Korea’s LIG Nex1.

But the real contest is expected to be between SAAB’s RBS-70 NG (Next Generation) system against MBDA’s Mistral. These two systems are said to have better integration between sensors and sights. Follow-on orders for the VSHORAD system could go up to 15,000 units.

The bids of the vendors will now be subjected to a paper evaluation to validate their qualifications with respect to the tender requirements, before field trials commence. The three services will be inducting specially configured systems for their requirements.

Switzerland is again in the market for fighter aircraft after having announced a postponement of a decision, last year, to purchase the replacements for their F-5 Tiger aircraft.

Significantly, not only is the Swiss Air Force looking for additional capabilities in the aircraft, like an AESA radar, it is also planning to increase the order size from 22 to 36. This would result in an increase in the value of the order from the USD 3-5 billion estimated last year.

Switzerland was considering the Swedish SAAB’s Gripen, EADS’ Eurofighter and the French Dassault’s Rafale to replace their F-5 aircraft, before it put the tender process on hold last year, ostensibly for budgetary reasons.

But the Swiss are now looking at other options as well and have invited Boeing to offer the F/A-18 Super Hornet. This could partly be a result of a feeling that they might be able to achieve cost savings, keeping in mind the existing infrastructure for the upgraded F-18 Hornets, which they already operate.

Less than a month before the expiry of the commercial bids for the Indian Air Force (IAF) order for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), the Ministry of Defense has asked the six vendors to resubmit their proposals for technical offsets. Earlier this week, the ministry sent letters to the MMRCA-6, asking them to send in their revised bids within ten days.

The terms of the estimated USD 10 billion-tender mandate the winning vendor to plow back 50 per cent of the value of the order into India. The vendors had submitted their original offset proposals in July 2008, but it was only last year, after the IAF submitted its report on the flight evaluation of the six aircraft, that the ministry began work on the offset evaluation in earnest. It found the offset proposals submitted by all six vendors to be unsatisfactory and after repeated rescheduling of deadlines for the submission of revised offset proposals, has finally asked the vendors to send in their plans by the middle of next week.

The Indian Ministry of Defense has issued letters, on Wednesday, to two of the six vendors competing in the estimated USD 10 billion Indian Air Force (IAF) tender for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), asking them to extend the validity of their commercial bids, which will expire on Thursday, tomorrow.

StratPost can confirm that the European Eurofighter Typhoon consortium and the French Dassault’s Rafale have been invited to do so, effectively making up the shortlist.

StratPost can also confirm that according to the IAF and the ministry, the other aircraft in the fray, the US Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, the US Lockheed Martin Corporation’s F-16, the Russian MiG-35 and the Swedish SAAB’s Gripen did not pass the technical evaluation conducted by the IAF.

It is noteworthy that this comes just a day before the commercial bids of all six vendors were to expire.

It would not be unsurprising if this move by the ministry and it’s coincidentally sharp timing were to raise the hackles of the spurned vendors.

The Indian Ministry of Defense has asked the European Eurofighter Typhoon consortium and the French Dassault to extend the validity of their commercial bids for the Indian Air Force (IAF) tender for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender till December 31, 2011.

StratPost reported the formation of an effective shortlist for the tender, on Wednesday, with the ministry issuing letters to the two aircraft companies, inviting them to extend the validity of their commercial bids.

The other contenders for the order, Boeing, pitching its F/A-18 Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin, with its F-16, SAAB, with its Gripen and the Russian United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), offering its MiG-35, were also sent letters informing them of the individual grounds for their failing to pass the IAF’s technical evaluation.

More later.

The spurned vendors and countries failing to receive invitations by the Indian Ministry of Defense to extend the validity of their commercial bids for the Indian Air Force (IAF) tender for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), which expired on Thursday, have issued cautious responses indicating that they do not consider the matter closed and that there is, still, much left to be discussed.

As first reported by StratPost, the the European Eurofighter consortium and the French Dassault’s Rafale were the only two companies issued invitations by the ministry to extend their bids up to December 31, 2011, for which they have been given two weeks. The other four vendors in the race, US companies Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Swedish aircraft manufacturer SAAB and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation were not extended similar invitations, thereby leading to a shortlist by default.

Their respective aircraft, the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the F-16, the Gripen and the MiG-35 were found to have failed to pass muster in the technical evaluation conducted by the IAF.