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New
Delhi, 16 June 2005
The 46th Paris Air Show 2005, one
of the largest and the most impressive international
exhibitions of defense and civil aircraft and
spacecraft, began from June 13 to 19 in Le Bourget,
a suburb of Paris. This year India is there with the
Air Chief and a Plans team. They are in demand for
the 126 fighters and other planes India is buying.
There are also new rules now for big suppliers and
they will have to invest 30% of their contract in
offsets.
The bureaucrats will have a hey day
all over again. Offsets are to be on a case to case
basis and the Armed Forces should say that war
should also be on offset basis. In free economies to
bring in rules like these is harakiri as the
Japanese would say but this is India! First no
Agents so people on top made money now off sets. The
French will look to grease Indians for the Mirage
2000-5 and RosboronExport State Corporation, will
push for the MIG 29M2 and new fifth generation
fighters and transport planes and helos.
RosboronExport is the organizer of the Russian
exposition and unites under its auspices more than
40 enterprises of defense industries with 250 items.
The Indian civil aviation team and private airlines
are also here buying Air Buses and Boeings.
Americans don’t know how to look after Indians but
will push the F-16s in their own Iraqi way.
Among the leading world exporters
of military aircraft Russia maintains a solid
position. Their share of aviation export and space
services contributes over 60% of total volume of
RosboronExport supplies, which in 2004 reached the
all-time high figure of $5.12 billion. Their offset,
transfer of technology, license production and
maintenance programmes are also becoming more
competitive. Russian services in the space field are
meeting the ever-growing demand in the international
market. The delivery of the last batch of
state-of-the-art multifunctional Su-30MKI aircraft
to the Indian Air Force was successfully completed
in November 2004 within the terms of the contract.
The unique feature of the project was that Russia
performed export supplies of on-board avionics
produced in cooperation with Indian, French, South
African and Israeli companies including 2 Indian FCS
Computers. Malaysia is their next customer.
Scope and geography of Russian
aircraft supplies are also growing considerably.
Recent signing-up of a contract for supply of
Mil-family helicopters to Venezuela, commencement of
supplies of helicopters to Czech Republic and
implementation of the contract for helicopter
supplies to Malaysia serve as an example to that.
Cooperation between Russian aircraft building
enterprises and European partners (SAGEM, THALES,
MBDA, SNECMA, and BAe Systems) has recently become
more active. There are certain developments in
Russian–French defense and technological
cooperation. In particular, joint efforts are
undertaken in order to promote MiG-AT trainer with
SNECMA engines to the third world nations’
markets. This year saw commencement of joint
development with SAGEM of the LINS-2000 laser
inertial navigation system.
The Russian exhibition pavilion
displays exhaustive information about the whole
number of export models of the Sukhoi family
aircrafts and primarily about Su-27SKM 4+ generation
multifunctional fighter, which China has, whose
full-scale live specimen is
being demonstrated at the exhibition. This
aircraft boasts high manoeuvrability, the best
flight performance in the world and provides
engagement of the whole range of aerial, ground and
sea targets by high-tech guided weapons. One can
also become familiar with performance
characteristics of Su-30MK multifunctional fighter,
Su-32 fighter-bomber, Su-39 attack aircraft fitted
with Kopye radar system, Su-47 experimental aircraft
with forward-swept wing, Su-33 shipborne fighter,
etc. The MiG-AT combat trainer and MiG-29 fighter
and the full-size sample of specialized combat
simulator (STBP-29) and the MiG-31E
fighter-interceptor will also be of special interest
for Air Force representatives of certain foreign
nations. Yak-130 combat trainer has a prominent
place at the Russian stand. Being a dual-purpose
aircraft, it can be used as a trainer and a light
strike aircraft as well. The Russians also have a
whole range of helicopters on display.
Late News.
As mentioned earlier it will be
mandatory from now on, for all foreign arms
companies winning contracts worth more than Rs 300
crore (Rs 3 billion) to necessarily invest 30% of
the amount in the country as direct offsets. This is
a major change carried out in the defence capital
procurement procedure manual released by defence
minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi. Now, under
the new procedure, foreign arms majors will also
have to sign an integrity pact to ensure that no
"unfair and unethical" means are employed
in winning the deals. The revised manual has also
broad based the qualitative requirements and
inserted a standard contract document to make for
speedy procurement. Releasing the revised manual,
the defence minister said, "We want to leverage
our high purchasing power to help the domestic
defence industry". But the good news is the
defence minister asserted that this year’s capital
outlay expenditure of more than Rs 34,000 crore (Rs
340 billion) would be fully utilised. "We may
have to ask for supplementary grants under this head
as we want to speed up modernisation," Mr
Mukherjee said. This means the politicians will gain
and the military should get what they need and the
Navy needs a submarine contract soonest and some
second hand ships. The US has them and INVINCIBLE is
available.
Mr. Mukherjee said decision makers
in the ministry and service headquarters had been
given a definite period for armament acquisitions.
On the integrity pact, which also would have to be
signed by foreign arms suppliers, he said this was
the new emerging trend in the global arms market and
under it both the suppliers as well as purchasers
would have to sign before negotiations were opened
for any deals. The revised procurement manual also
sets out joint qualitative requirements for the
purchase of weapon systems common to the three
services.
The minister said the manual had
been prepared incorporating suggestions by central
vigilance commission, CAG, manufacturers and users.
The minister said the procurement manual might be
further revised once the second part recommendations
of the Kelkar Committee are received. No doubt these
will be made to suit the bureaucrats and
politicians.
Air chief S P Tyagi would spend a
week in France
where he would witness the Paris Air Show and meet
the IAF personnel participating in the Indo-French
exercise 'Garuda-II', as Su 30s and an IL 78 are
there. Tyagi would hold a meeting with his French
counterpart and would visit the Istres air base,
where the IAF contingent is participating in the
military exercise with Sukhoi-30 aircraft. At the
famed air show at Le Bourget which is one of the
well-known global expositions of aircraft, aero
engines and other aviation related equipment of both
civil and military use, the Air chief's visit would
attract considerable attention as the IAF has
already issued the Request for Intent (RFI) for the
acquisition of 126 fighter aircraft. Major aviation
firms, which could respond to the RFI, like Dassault
(France), SAAB (Sweden), Lockheed Martin (USA),
Boeing (USA), RAC MiG (Russia) and several others,
are participating in the air show.
Meanwhile, the public sector
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is showcasing its
multi-role Intermediate Jet Trainer HJT-36 at the
Paris Air Show. The HAL is looking forward to offer
the aircraft to the armed forces the world over.
This is the first time that HJT-36 is being
displayed at a major international air show. Besides
a static display, the HJT-36 would also participate
in the flight display at the air show and would be
flown by HAL's chief test pilot, an IAF veteran, Sqn
Ldr (Retd) Baldev Singh. We saw the plane fly at
Aero India and it was a beauty. The aircraft, which
has already been the cynosure of eyes through its
exhilarating display at Bangalore's Aero India 2005,
is planned to replace the Kirans which are currently
used for stage-II training of pilots. HJT-36 can be
used for general flying, navigational formation,
cloud flying, tactical and night operations, basic
air-to-air weapon aiming and air-to-ground weaponry.
It can fly at a maximum speed of 750 kms per hour
with an altitude ceiling of 9000 feet. The aircraft
prototype, which has already completed 140 sorties
last month for flight evaluation, is planned to get
operational clearance by 2007
The UK aerospace industry and civil
industries and the aircraft manufacturers were out
in force at the Paris Air Show 2005. The UK Pavilion
contains 111 companies and seven regional trade
associations promoting their skills and expertise to
a global audience. A large number of UK based
companies are exhibiting and will receive the active
support of UK Government agencies, UK Trade &
Investment and the Defence Export Services
Organisation (DESO). Dr Sally Howes, Director
General, Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC),
said, “Paris is the premier aerospace event of
this year and UK industry is well represented. The
UK companies are being supported by regional trade
associations and national agencies, to ensure that
the UK continues to win business world-wide.
Regional trade associations are making a tremendous
contribution to the global success of UK companies.
Their work to promote skills, innovation and
productivity are helping to ensure that all
companies, particularly SMEs, have a stake in an
increasingly competitive global industry.'
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