United States Offers India to Lease 12 Surveillance Helicopters

[PLAextream]

why us lease are they too costly for india to purchase?,what soo special about them. india buys reconnaissance/anti sub helos from russia? .

 

[sancho]

why us lease are they too costly for india to purchase?,what soo special about them. india buys reconnaissance/anti sub helos from russia? .

Very old news, they were on offer after mumbai attacks, as a fast procurement (that's why a leasing), but we don't seems to be interested, otherwise we would have bought some.
The americans offer anything, even before we ask, Hellfire anti-tank missiles although we develop air launched NAG, V22, E-2D..., so don't take that too seriously.

 

[Peace Sells no one buying]

why us lease are they too costly for india to purchase?,what soo special about them. india buys reconnaissance/anti sub helos from russia? .

I think part of the issue here is immediancy. India needs equipment now. That's actually why India is offering up so much money for the MRCA project -- because they need planes as soon as possible (and can't wait for the HAL to do it). This may very well be the case with reconnaissance helicopters as well -- ingenious development takes time, and fielding many international tenders fulfills the needs of the nation quicker (at ridiculous expense).

I'm with you -- this is not special. India has a need (equipment) and so does America (money). This is just business and not evocative of greater global shifts in pollicy. Just because India leases 12 non-attack helicopters, or a private industry/MNC (aka. not the US Government) floats the idea that they might sell an advance weapon system in the future does not mean the US is all of a sudden going to start pushing for India on the UN Security Council or anything.

The Leasing aspect (and I haven't seen the document) suggests that America wants to maximize how much money they'll make without actually letting India own American helicopters. (If India owned them they could break them down and study from them and possibly reverse engineer them -- I don't actually know, this is all speculation on my part.)