bhagat
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2010
- Messages
- 772
- Reaction score
- 0
U.S. May Sweeten Indian Jet Bid
Could Release More Tech To Woo New Delhi
U.S. officials may offer better avionics performance as part of the F-16 and F/A-18 fighters vying for India's $10 billion competition for 126 new combat jets, sources said, capping a week that also saw the Pentagon's acquisition chief open the door to an Indian purchase of the F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft.
The moves come just before the Feb. 9-15 Aero India 2011, South Asia's premier airshow, where the world's leading combat aircraft makers will show off their wares in their bid to win the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contest.
Sources said the modified bids would allow the U.S. jets to offer better radar range and electronic-warfare performance. U.S. contractors are prohibited from promising any more capabilities than what the government allows them to release.
Indian officials, however, realize U.S. systems have greater capabilities than what is being officially offered, and want the bar raised.
In contrast, European MMRCA competitors have pledged to fully share their technologies with Indian industry
Aside from Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin's F-16IN Super Viper, competitors include Dassault's Rafale, Eurofighter's Typhoon, Mikoyan's MiG-35 and Saab's JAS-39 Gripen. The planes will be at Bangalore, along with sizeable delegations of each of the competing nations.
As Washington mulls technology transfer to India, Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter indicated a willingness to allow India at some point to acquire the F-35, a stealthy jet long reserved for America's closest allies.
"There is nothing on our side, no principle which bars that on our side, Indian participation in the Joint Strike Fighter," Carter told an audience Jan. 26 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
The F-35 is not a contender for the MMRCA competition, which was launched in 2004, but might vie for some future contract.
But Indian officials have long expressed interest in the short takeoff and vertical landing variant of JSF for their aircraft carriers, although U.S. officials have historically been publicly noncommittal about India's role on the program given their nascent arms relationship
"Right now, they're focused on these aircraft which are top-of-the-line fourth-gen fighters," Carter said.
Together, the F-35 and MMRCA developments show how U.S. officials are flexing as they - and others around the world - pursue India's growing more than $100 billion defense market.
Last year, India's long-time strategic partner Russia nailed down two major aerospace deals, agreeing to co-develop and buy a new airlifter and a stealthy fighter.
But it's Washington that has been moving most dramatically. Starting in the George W. Bush administration, Washington has wooed India as a strategic partner, sealing a major nuclear cooperation deal in 2008, and selling an array of weapons that includes missiles, the C-17 and C-130 airlifters and the P-8 maritime patrol jet.
When U.S. President Barack Obama visited India in November, he called the country a world power and pledged U.S. support to help India win a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
And just last week, the U.S. lifted a 12-year-old ban on the export of dual-use technology to two Indian design labs.
Although Carter said Washington has "been very forthcoming and forward-leaning with respect to technology transfer and industrial participation," U.S. officials continue to think through how to balance appropriate controls against greater openness.
"What will be crucial for the Indians is the level of technology transfer the U.S. is prepared to offer on Joint Strike Fighter, particularly given Delhi recently got into bed with the Russians to build a fifth-generation fighter of their own," said one defense industry executive in London.
The executive noted that India is asking bidders for 50 percent offsets, high levels of technology transfer and local assembly in the competition for the MMRCA program.
"It will be interesting to see how the U.S. would manage those kind of expectations with the F-35," he said.
The centrality of technology transfer was underscored by a U.S. diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks. Written last February, it described a conversation between Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
"In order to kick the relationship into a different gear," the U.S. needed "to be seen to be sharing technology," the cable quoted Menon as saying.
Ultimately, India wants to help create advanced arms, not merely buy them, said Brigadier Bhupesh Kumar Jain, the Indian defense attache to the United States.
India is changing its procurement process - among other things, allowing more flexibility in offset deals - so that it can buy from more countries, Jain said Jan. 24 at the ComDef West conference in San Diego.
"It is less interested in a buyer-seller relationship and instead wants joint development. That's where it's moving," he said.
Sharing Technology
The news about the F-35 arrives as the U.S. Commerce Department formally lifts its export ban on dual-use items to India's Defence Research and Development Organization and the Indian Space Research Organization. Washington levied the sanctions as part of its response to India's 1998 nuclear tests.
Indian officials hailed the Jan. 26 move, which implements an agreement forged during Obama's November visit to New Delhi. A senior Indian Ministry of Defence official said ending the ban would pave the way for the joint development of advanced air defense systems.
But Indian analysts were dubious.
"While lifting restrictions now may result in a template for future collaborative research-and-development projects, it is unlikely many such joint ventures will happen any time soon," said Bharat Karnad, a professor of national security studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. "Besides, these projects, if and when they are realized, will not be cutting-edge stuff because of residual mutual distrust."
Carter said Defense Secretary Robert Gates is committed to reforming export controls to help build international partnerships.
"That also will be an important factor in U.S.-India relationships," he said Jan. 26.
Rand Corp. analyst Benjamin Lambeth said the United States could work out ways to share at least some F-35 technology, citing accords reached to facilitate arms sales to Singapore and Israel.
"It is imperative for the U.S. government to apply all the creative imagination it can to find some mutually satisfactory way of squaring the circle so that India can get what it needs," Lambeth said.
Naval Interest?
In a follow-up e-mail to Carter's comments, Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin stressed that the idea of Indian F-35s remains simply that - an idea.
"If, at some point down the road, India were interested in purchasing JSF from us, then we would engage the Indians in an open, transparent manner at that time. But this would obviously be something that the Indian government would have to decide it wanted or needed," Irwin wrote.
Sources said India will eventually need to replace its Harrier jump jets that fly from aircraft carriers.
Among the MMRCA contenders, the Rafale and F-18 already operate from carrier decks, while Saab has touted a navalized version of its Gripen, but using them would require future Indian ships to be equipped with catapults and arresting gear.
India has also acquired Russian MiG-29Ks to meet their naval requirements.
Indian officials were initially noncommittal in reaction to Carter's statement.
"It is for the Indian Air Force to choose if they wish to have F-35," a senior Indian defense ministry official said.
An Indian Air Force source added the service "cannot make a judgment unless F-35 is a part of Indo-U.S. air exercises where Indian fighter pilots can have firsthand flight operations experiences. Therefore, the IAF cannot make any judgment now."
MMRCA and Beyond
As for the MMRCA competition, Carter touted the F-16IN and F/A-18E/F as the most technologically advanced of the rivals, as well as the cheapest to operate.
He also made a pitch on diplomatic grounds, saying the purchase of a U.S. plane "would give additional momentum to the relationship" between India and the United States.
But he said that India's MMRCA choice would likely come down to technology transfer and industrial participation.
The London defense industry executive said the front-runners appear to be Typhoon, Rafale and the F-18.
"At the end of the day, it will be a political decision about who wins, but if F-18 is not emerging as the favored solution, then maybe the U.S. would like to see the program move to the right with the F-35 as the bait," he said.
Russian officials declined to comment, but a source in the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation said manufacturers do not feel threatened by the U.S. advances to India because Russia has nothing to offer in the arms market segments where the States are active. This includes light fifth-generation fighters, like F-35.
"Also, we had signed the agreement with the Indians last year to work on the T-50 heavy fifth-generation fighters, in which New Delhi will procure up to 300 aircraft," the official said. "This contract will keep us loaded with work for another 20 to 30 years."
Analyst Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment, Washington, D.C., said India would eventually need an advanced air-superiority fighter to replace the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, a role that neither MMRCA nor the F-35 could fill. He said the emergence of the Chinese Chengdu J-20 jet may lead India to accelerate its plans to buy or develop a fifth-generation fighter.
Rand's Lambeth said India has already committed to the Sukhoi Perspektivny Aviatsionny Kompleks- Frontovoy Aviatsii (PAK-FA) stealth fighter, which flew early last year.
But he said that if the Russian aircraft stumbles, there may be an opportunity for the F-35.
"It would behoove the U.S. government to let it be known that the aircraft would be available, especially if the PAK-FA encounters developmental trouble," he said.
Tellis urged India to move ahead with its MMRCA program, then quickly shift its attention to replacing its Mirage 2000 and MiG-21, the middle- and low-end air-superiority fighters, with fifth-generation aircraft.
"Because of the transitions that are taking place in air warfare today, the steady shift toward stealth airplanes, this is not time for the Indian state to be pouring enormous amounts of money into buying expensive fourth-generation aircraft," Tellis said. "Instead, what the Indian state ought to be buying is the cheapest, effective fourth-generation aircraft it can buy to populate the middle while it actually starts aggressively planning for the transition toward stealth airframes."
Nabi Abdullaev, Kate Brannen, Andrew Chuter, Dave Majumdar, Vago Muradian and Vivek Raghuvanshi contributed to this report.
U.S. May Sweeten Indian Jet Bid - Defense News
Could Release More Tech To Woo New Delhi
U.S. officials may offer better avionics performance as part of the F-16 and F/A-18 fighters vying for India's $10 billion competition for 126 new combat jets, sources said, capping a week that also saw the Pentagon's acquisition chief open the door to an Indian purchase of the F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft.
The moves come just before the Feb. 9-15 Aero India 2011, South Asia's premier airshow, where the world's leading combat aircraft makers will show off their wares in their bid to win the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contest.
Sources said the modified bids would allow the U.S. jets to offer better radar range and electronic-warfare performance. U.S. contractors are prohibited from promising any more capabilities than what the government allows them to release.
Indian officials, however, realize U.S. systems have greater capabilities than what is being officially offered, and want the bar raised.
In contrast, European MMRCA competitors have pledged to fully share their technologies with Indian industry
Aside from Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin's F-16IN Super Viper, competitors include Dassault's Rafale, Eurofighter's Typhoon, Mikoyan's MiG-35 and Saab's JAS-39 Gripen. The planes will be at Bangalore, along with sizeable delegations of each of the competing nations.
As Washington mulls technology transfer to India, Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter indicated a willingness to allow India at some point to acquire the F-35, a stealthy jet long reserved for America's closest allies.
"There is nothing on our side, no principle which bars that on our side, Indian participation in the Joint Strike Fighter," Carter told an audience Jan. 26 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
The F-35 is not a contender for the MMRCA competition, which was launched in 2004, but might vie for some future contract.
But Indian officials have long expressed interest in the short takeoff and vertical landing variant of JSF for their aircraft carriers, although U.S. officials have historically been publicly noncommittal about India's role on the program given their nascent arms relationship
"Right now, they're focused on these aircraft which are top-of-the-line fourth-gen fighters," Carter said.
Together, the F-35 and MMRCA developments show how U.S. officials are flexing as they - and others around the world - pursue India's growing more than $100 billion defense market.
Last year, India's long-time strategic partner Russia nailed down two major aerospace deals, agreeing to co-develop and buy a new airlifter and a stealthy fighter.
But it's Washington that has been moving most dramatically. Starting in the George W. Bush administration, Washington has wooed India as a strategic partner, sealing a major nuclear cooperation deal in 2008, and selling an array of weapons that includes missiles, the C-17 and C-130 airlifters and the P-8 maritime patrol jet.
When U.S. President Barack Obama visited India in November, he called the country a world power and pledged U.S. support to help India win a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
And just last week, the U.S. lifted a 12-year-old ban on the export of dual-use technology to two Indian design labs.
Although Carter said Washington has "been very forthcoming and forward-leaning with respect to technology transfer and industrial participation," U.S. officials continue to think through how to balance appropriate controls against greater openness.
"What will be crucial for the Indians is the level of technology transfer the U.S. is prepared to offer on Joint Strike Fighter, particularly given Delhi recently got into bed with the Russians to build a fifth-generation fighter of their own," said one defense industry executive in London.
The executive noted that India is asking bidders for 50 percent offsets, high levels of technology transfer and local assembly in the competition for the MMRCA program.
"It will be interesting to see how the U.S. would manage those kind of expectations with the F-35," he said.
The centrality of technology transfer was underscored by a U.S. diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks. Written last February, it described a conversation between Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
"In order to kick the relationship into a different gear," the U.S. needed "to be seen to be sharing technology," the cable quoted Menon as saying.
Ultimately, India wants to help create advanced arms, not merely buy them, said Brigadier Bhupesh Kumar Jain, the Indian defense attache to the United States.
India is changing its procurement process - among other things, allowing more flexibility in offset deals - so that it can buy from more countries, Jain said Jan. 24 at the ComDef West conference in San Diego.
"It is less interested in a buyer-seller relationship and instead wants joint development. That's where it's moving," he said.
Sharing Technology
The news about the F-35 arrives as the U.S. Commerce Department formally lifts its export ban on dual-use items to India's Defence Research and Development Organization and the Indian Space Research Organization. Washington levied the sanctions as part of its response to India's 1998 nuclear tests.
Indian officials hailed the Jan. 26 move, which implements an agreement forged during Obama's November visit to New Delhi. A senior Indian Ministry of Defence official said ending the ban would pave the way for the joint development of advanced air defense systems.
But Indian analysts were dubious.
"While lifting restrictions now may result in a template for future collaborative research-and-development projects, it is unlikely many such joint ventures will happen any time soon," said Bharat Karnad, a professor of national security studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. "Besides, these projects, if and when they are realized, will not be cutting-edge stuff because of residual mutual distrust."
Carter said Defense Secretary Robert Gates is committed to reforming export controls to help build international partnerships.
"That also will be an important factor in U.S.-India relationships," he said Jan. 26.
Rand Corp. analyst Benjamin Lambeth said the United States could work out ways to share at least some F-35 technology, citing accords reached to facilitate arms sales to Singapore and Israel.
"It is imperative for the U.S. government to apply all the creative imagination it can to find some mutually satisfactory way of squaring the circle so that India can get what it needs," Lambeth said.
Naval Interest?
In a follow-up e-mail to Carter's comments, Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin stressed that the idea of Indian F-35s remains simply that - an idea.
"If, at some point down the road, India were interested in purchasing JSF from us, then we would engage the Indians in an open, transparent manner at that time. But this would obviously be something that the Indian government would have to decide it wanted or needed," Irwin wrote.
Sources said India will eventually need to replace its Harrier jump jets that fly from aircraft carriers.
Among the MMRCA contenders, the Rafale and F-18 already operate from carrier decks, while Saab has touted a navalized version of its Gripen, but using them would require future Indian ships to be equipped with catapults and arresting gear.
India has also acquired Russian MiG-29Ks to meet their naval requirements.
Indian officials were initially noncommittal in reaction to Carter's statement.
"It is for the Indian Air Force to choose if they wish to have F-35," a senior Indian defense ministry official said.
An Indian Air Force source added the service "cannot make a judgment unless F-35 is a part of Indo-U.S. air exercises where Indian fighter pilots can have firsthand flight operations experiences. Therefore, the IAF cannot make any judgment now."
MMRCA and Beyond
As for the MMRCA competition, Carter touted the F-16IN and F/A-18E/F as the most technologically advanced of the rivals, as well as the cheapest to operate.
He also made a pitch on diplomatic grounds, saying the purchase of a U.S. plane "would give additional momentum to the relationship" between India and the United States.
But he said that India's MMRCA choice would likely come down to technology transfer and industrial participation.
The London defense industry executive said the front-runners appear to be Typhoon, Rafale and the F-18.
"At the end of the day, it will be a political decision about who wins, but if F-18 is not emerging as the favored solution, then maybe the U.S. would like to see the program move to the right with the F-35 as the bait," he said.
Russian officials declined to comment, but a source in the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation said manufacturers do not feel threatened by the U.S. advances to India because Russia has nothing to offer in the arms market segments where the States are active. This includes light fifth-generation fighters, like F-35.
"Also, we had signed the agreement with the Indians last year to work on the T-50 heavy fifth-generation fighters, in which New Delhi will procure up to 300 aircraft," the official said. "This contract will keep us loaded with work for another 20 to 30 years."
Analyst Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment, Washington, D.C., said India would eventually need an advanced air-superiority fighter to replace the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, a role that neither MMRCA nor the F-35 could fill. He said the emergence of the Chinese Chengdu J-20 jet may lead India to accelerate its plans to buy or develop a fifth-generation fighter.
Rand's Lambeth said India has already committed to the Sukhoi Perspektivny Aviatsionny Kompleks- Frontovoy Aviatsii (PAK-FA) stealth fighter, which flew early last year.
But he said that if the Russian aircraft stumbles, there may be an opportunity for the F-35.
"It would behoove the U.S. government to let it be known that the aircraft would be available, especially if the PAK-FA encounters developmental trouble," he said.
Tellis urged India to move ahead with its MMRCA program, then quickly shift its attention to replacing its Mirage 2000 and MiG-21, the middle- and low-end air-superiority fighters, with fifth-generation aircraft.
"Because of the transitions that are taking place in air warfare today, the steady shift toward stealth airplanes, this is not time for the Indian state to be pouring enormous amounts of money into buying expensive fourth-generation aircraft," Tellis said. "Instead, what the Indian state ought to be buying is the cheapest, effective fourth-generation aircraft it can buy to populate the middle while it actually starts aggressively planning for the transition toward stealth airframes."
Nabi Abdullaev, Kate Brannen, Andrew Chuter, Dave Majumdar, Vago Muradian and Vivek Raghuvanshi contributed to this report.
U.S. May Sweeten Indian Jet Bid - Defense News
