India’s tender for HS-748 replacement may not take off

India’s first attempt to operate a military aircraft-building program involving the domestic private sector appears to be a non-starter as only one potential foreign partner is likely to submit a bid, a Ministry of Defence source said.

With only Spain-based Airbus Defence and Space participating, the program would become a single-vendor contest, which MoD almost certainly would cancel.

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Low Attendance
When the MoD decided to go ahead with the private-sector aircraft effort, only Airbus and Antonov participated in a pre-bid meeting in April, an MoD source said.

In May 2013, the global tender for procurement of 56 aircraft was sent to Airbus Defence and Space, Alenia Aeronautica, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Antonov Design Bureau, Ilyushin Design Bureau and Embraer.

Ukraine-based Antonov informally informed MoD that it could not transfer aircraft technology because a majority of the systems are sourced from Russia’s Voronezh Aircraft Production Association. Moscow has stopped export of these technologies to the Ukrainian company.

Antonov had negotiated with domestic private-sector major Tata Advanced Systems for licensed production of its An-148 aircraft.

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That leaves Airbus as the sole overseas bidder likely to be in the fray. Airbus has already teamed with domestic private company Larsen & Toubro for licensed production of the Airbus C-295 aircraft.

However, domestic industry has labeled the program as too small.

An executive of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the lobbying agency of the domestic private sector, said it welcomes the govern*ment’s decision to allow private local companies as production partners. But because only 40 aircraft will be produced under license in India and the remaining 16 will be imported, the Avro replacement program is not economically viable for a private firm.

“An order for licensed production of at least 75 aircraft would be economically viable as the domestic company will have to set up production facilities worth over $500 million,” the FICCI executive said.

Uh Oh—A Crappy Italian Company Might Build The Netherlands’ New Stealth Fighters

The NH-90 seems to suffer from manufacturing and/or design defect that is still being rectified, particularly the naval variant. If I were to build a large naval helo fleet, I would begin and end my search at the Seahawk. The whole system is tested with a vast supplier list and has gobs of equipment cert’d on them.

Agree. Even for the Indian Navy’s Multi-Role Helicopter (MRH) requirement, the S-70B is a vastly more mature and perhaps better designed helicopter..the NH-90 seems to be suffering from design defects due to early intro into service..there hasn’t been a single satisfied customer for the NH-90 as yet.

But despite being pissed off over the European maker for “falsifying facts” as the IN put it, and despite the NH-90’s links with Agusta Westland, the IN will want to avoid jettisoning the NH-90 from the MRH contest for fear that single vendor situation will derail the entire procurement. Was hoping to see the Modi govt. taking a proactive stand in this matter, but so far all they’ve done is follow the UPA govt’s line.

Australia pushes for Harpoon integration on P-8A

Not sure what this means..there were many images of the Harpoons on P-8Is during flight tests..not sure if those were simply carriage trials and if integration wasn’t completed as yet.

UK casts doubt on Harpoon AShM future beyond 2018

What is the delay period … ONE month from August 2014 to September 2014 for initial SP planes and THREE months from Dec 2014 to Mar 2015 (which is still very optimistic)

enough to “embarass” the resident Pakistani troll

Don’t know about MTA, but Il-214 is finally making tangible progress these days.

Any updates on that program?

Aviationweek article – ATD-X emerges amidst Japanese fighter choices

A must read article for those who are either feeling let down by what the ATD-X is, or for those who’re not still too familiar with the program and its development timelines. Far too many posters are under-estimating the importance of the technology demonstration aspect of this program.