Indian officials said a recent visit by U.S. officials has boosted the likelihood that its Navy will buy eight P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft from the United States. The planes would be B models upgraded to C standards.
“The U.S. delegation, led by Ed Ross, director for South Asia for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which held talks in New Delhi May 27 with Indian defense officials, has agreed to sell the P-3C Orion maritime aircraft to India,” a senior Defence Ministry official said, adding that the quoted price may go down as well.
A diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi said there is hope for a deal this year.
The Navy has frantically hunted for maritime surveillance aircraft ever since two of its Il-38 maritime surveillance aircraft crashed in an accident in October 2002. The present fleet of three Il-38 and eight Tu-42 maritime surveillance aircraft, all Russian made, is old and needs to be replaced, said an Indian Navy official. Negotiations with Russian firms to upgrade the TU-42s are in limbo over price, the ministry official said.
India had negotiated to buy P-3s under the Foreign Military Sales route after Washington lifted sanctions against India in September 2001. But talks were delayed by Indo-Pakistani tension in December 2001, a U.S. diplomat said.
The Indian government later put Orion purchases on hold when U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin would not come down to the Indian government’s $12 million offer, said an official of the ministry’s Defense Procurement Board.
“The chances of the Orion deal getting through has immensely increased with the visit of the U.S. team,” the board official said.
The Indian Navy had contracted with Rosoboronexport in 2001 to upgrade the five Il-38 anti-submarine warfare planes at a cost of about $8 million per aircraft. However, only three of the Il-38s are left with the Navy as two Il-38s met with an accident over Goa in 2002. The Navy received one of three Il-38 aircraft upgraded at Russian facilities and the remaining two are expected in a year’s time.
The upgrade on the Il-38 includes incorporation of the New Sea Dragon mission system developed by the Ilyushin Design Bureau in Moscow. While Ilyushin’s Aviation Complex carried out the modernization program, all major arms and subsystems were supplied by India. The upgrade includes an anti-submarine system, integrated radar, digital avionics, a thermal imaging system, infrared sensors, a sonobouy system, a magnetometer, a navigation system and new-generation short-range, air-to-air missiles.
Late last year the Navy rejected an $888.9 million proposal to upgrade its eight Tu-142 maritime asymetric warfare aircraft by Russia, following poor performance of the Sea Dragon multimission avionics and electronic warfare (EW) system. The Navy has approached Israel Aircraft Industries, Lod, and Elbit Systems, Haifa, both of Israel, for mission avionics and command-and-control EW systems for its Tu-142s, the Procurement Board official said.
Sign In
June 4, 2004 at 7:05 pm