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.

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.

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.

India’s decision to eliminate four of the six aircraft in the Indian Air Force (IAF) tender for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), first reported by StratPost, may already have resulted in one winner, even before the commercial bids for the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Rafale are opened.

The ownership structure of the Eurofighter consortium (Eurofighter GmbH) is such that BAE Systems of UK has a 33 per cent stake in the program, while Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica, wholly owned by Finmeccanica, has a 21 per cent stake. EADS owns 46 per cent of the Eurofighter.

But it also owns just a little bit more of Dassault Aviation, the company that manufactures the Rafale. While Dassault (Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault) has a simple majority shareholding of 50.55 per cent, 3.13 per cent is held by private investors. The rest of the 46.32 per cent is owned by EADS.

According to a statement solicited from Cassidian, formerly known as EADS Defense & Security, “The shareholding of 46 per cent in the Eurofighter consortium makes EADS the largest industrial partner in the Eurofighter program, in which we continue to invest strongly.

The purchase of 24 Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles for the Jaguar aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF), agreed earlier this month after being in the works for the past couple of years, was a milestone as it settled the niggling issue of the parameters of the end use monitoring between the Indian and US governments.

After much political controversy in India, the end use monitoring framework was agreed by both governments in July last year, during the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But it is only with the Harpoon deal that the framework has been tested with both sides agreeing to a compromise that sources in the Indian Ministry of Defense say, will be a model for future such agreements.

The USD 170 million Harpoon sale also attracted certain ‘enhanced’ end use monitoring requirements that impose more stringent conditions to ensure non-proliferation or leakage of technologies and systems. These typically apply to advanced technologies and weapon systems and also include ‘large aircraft with onboard infra red counter measures’.

US defense and aerospace company Boeing is offering a charged-up engine to power its F/A-18 Super Hornet, in the race to win the Indian Air Force (IAF) tender for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).

The engine, called the GE F414 EPE (Enhanced Performance Engine), will provide 20 per cent additional thrust to the aircraft. According to Richard S. McCrary, who leads Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet campaign in India, no changes would be required in the aircraft since the aircraft was designed ab initio to accommodate this evolved engine.

Dr. Vivek Lall, the head of Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security unit in India says that from its inception, the Super Hornet was designed to accommodate additional inlet airflow beyond the current F414 demand in anticipation of future capability enhancements and that technology upgrades for the engine are currently under development with GE Aviation.

The EPE takes advantage of this inherent airframe growth capability through enhancements to the fan and core, resulting in a 20% increase in thrust with no changes to the aircraft structure or outer moldline.

The Boeing F/A-18 Hornet is capable of operating off public roads like the Saab-built Gripen.

At least, that’s what the Finnish Air Force has been doing with its F/A-18 C&D Hornets. As the images below show, the legacy Hornet seems to have the same expeditionary capabilities as the Gripen.

Image: Major Henrik Elo, FINAF

Image: Major Henrik Elo, FINAF

Image: Major Henrik Elo, FINAF

Image: Major Henrik Elo, FINAF

Image: Major Henrik Elo, FINAF

Image: Major Henrik Elo, FINAF

Image: Major Henrik Elo, FINAF

But can the larger F/A-18 Super Hornet do the same?

“Indeed the Super Hornet can do everything the Classic does – only better! It has a lower landing speed due to the big wing – of course it is a bit wider and heavier, so that is a consideration – but built to operate in spartan conditions and of course, the wing fold makes a difference when pulling off the roadway.

The acquisition process for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) is facing delays due to uncertainties about offset policy and with vendors facing the prospect of having to redo their homework.

The IAF had submitted its report on the technical evaluation of the six aircraft competing to win the tender last summer. After this submission, the Ministry of Defense had to evaluate the offset proposals submitted by the six vendors and also compare the respective proposals for transfer of technology.

Last September, the respective vendors were invited to a review of their offset proposals by ministry officials, when they were all told that the proposals submitted by them failed to comply with the parameters set by the ministry. They were also informed at the time that in the case of offsets for third party suppliers, all vendors would need to have Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) in place with their suppliers’ suppliers as well, and that a letter to this effect would be issued shortly, which would also list out discrepancies in the offset proposals of the respective vendors.