NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (AFP) – 11:52 GMT – US military aviation giant Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Monday offered a lavish range of hardware including F-16 fighter jets to replace India’s ageing fleet of Soviet-built MiG-21 warplanes.
The offer, including technology transfers and joint ventures, came ahead of a visit to India this week by French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, expected to discuss an eight-billion-dollar Mirage-2000 deal with India.
The fight for India’s aviation market comes as speculation mounts that Delhi has put plans to buy equipment like badly-needed jet trainers on the backburner and is instead focusing on acquiring “operational assets.”
Both France and Britain have fought since 1983 to supply 66 such trainers at a cost of 1.63 billion dollars but now it seems they will have to wait yet another year, a senior defence ministry source said.
“We were very young when this particular race started but if we are now invited then we believe our T-50 is the only supersonic trainer that would meet the requirement of the Indian air force,” said Lockheed regional vice president Dennys Plessas in New Delhi.
Lockheed, developing cockpit controls for India’s indigenously designed light combat aircraft and working on four classified projects, said the company was willing to build its F-16s here only if the order was economically viable.
India’s 700 MiG-21s, some of them 30 years old, have been dubbed “flying coffins” because of their poor air safety record.
“We have received 366 more orders for the F-16 and its production will now continue beyond 2008 and so it remains the fighter jet of choice,” Plessas said.
“And if India wants to lease used F-16 from the United States government then we can extend supply and technological support and if India wants one F-16 for four of its MiG-21s, then we can make it in India,” said Plessas.
The US firm, meanwhile, also invited India to participate in a Lockheed-led Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) global project, launched last October.
The programme, worth 20 billion dollars, has 100 overseas partners and plans to manufacture 2,000 aircraft, which can serve both the navy and air force, for Britain and the US before selling to others.
“The JSF is the answer for the 21st century, which which will be an era of collaborations that will dominate the world for the next 20 years,” another Lockheed official said.
Lockheed executive Plessas said the company was also keen to sell or locally build its C-130 cargo planes.
“The Indian air force has a requirement of a 20-tonne aircraft and our C-130 can meet this requirement and we are looking forward to co-producing the aircraft with Hindustan Aeronautical Ltd,” he said of India’s largest plane makers.
He said the company would assure India there would be no disruption of supplies as happened in 1998 when the United States slapped sanctions on India after its nuclear tests that year.
The Soviet Union was India’s main defence supplier during the Cold War but lately New Delhi’s defence ties with Britain, France and especially the United States have vastly improved.
“We don’t expect the Indian market to be easy because India has a very aggressive industry and a powerful supplier,” Plessas said without naming Russia, which accounts for more than 70 percent of India’s military hardware.
A host of Western armament firms will be knocking on Indian doors during a domestic airshow starting Wednesday in the southern city of Bangalore where New Delhi will be scouting around for new defence partners.
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/afp/defense/030203115251.qtsowv1h.html
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February 3, 2003 at 1:14 pm