2ndINDO-EUROPEAN DEFENCE.qxP:INDO-PAK.qxd 04/06/10 3:21 PM Page 5
JUNE 2010
DEFENCE EQUIPMENT warfare systems, including new radar warning receivers with instantaneous wide-bank receivers and an integrated missile warning receiver with continuous time-to-impact information. New jammers and countermeasure systems and enhanced fuel capacity will be provided in addition to full mission simulators. The retrofitted Mirage 2000Hs will also be armed with Israel’s Rafael Armament Development Authority’s medium-range stand-off AGM-142 Raptor/Have Nap/Popeye airto-surface launched cruise missile specially configured for the IAF with an 80100km range. Codenamed Crystal Maze by the IAF, the missile is powered by a solid-propellant rocket motor and has an inertial guidance system equipped with a data-link and TV/imaging infra-red homing device. French avionics systems are also fitted onto around 125 recently upgraded MiG21bis ground attack fighters—of which four have already been lost in accidents— that are expected to remain in service till 2017 and the multi-role Su-30MKI fleet that forms the backbone of the IAF’s offensive formations. The IAF will eventually operate around 280-300 Su-30 MKIs of which around 150 are being constructed under license by HAL. Defence officials in Delhi said Paris’ abiding interest in India stemmed from a survey undertaken by French ambassadors in the late 1990s in which they identified it as one of the “future powers” of the 21st century along with Russia, China and Japan. A largely forgotten episode, dating back to France’s support for India’s 1998 nuclear tests in the face of international condemnation and sanctions by Washington, had the IAF in advanced negotiations to singly source its 126 MRCA requirement from Dassault by procuring Mirage 2000-5 fighters. At the time the IAF, citing ‘commonality’ with the Mirage 2000Hs, wanted 36 Mirage 2000-5s to be delivered in completed form with the remainder to be assembled locally under licence by HAL. But much to Paris’ chagrin the proposal was abandoned around 2002 in favour of a wider MRCA vendor base. Tacit French backing for India’s emergence as a nuclear weapon state, however, contributed towards the IN inking the $4.11 billion contract in October 2005 with Amraris—a joint venture of France’s Direction des Constructions Navales
One such imminent lucrative contract is in support of the Indian Air Force’s requirement of 126 multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) for an estimated $10 billion for which European vendors like France’s Dassault with the Rafale, Eurofighter withTyphoon and Sweden’s Saab with its JAS 39 Gripen are competing against US and Russian models.
Dassault’s Rafale is a multi-role combat aircraft
The British Are Coming (DCNS), Thales and Spain’s Navantia (formerly IZAR) to build six Scorpene diesel-electric patrol submarines at Mazagaon Dockyard Limited (MDL) in Mumbai. The Scorpenes were also to be fitted with Matra BAE Dynamics Alenia (MBDA) sea-skimming Exocet SM-39 missile with a 50km-range procured under a separate agreement for Rs 10.62 billion. The now-delayed Scorpene programme also kick-started MDL’s submarine building capability, created at great expense in the 1980s but badly depreciated after the IN’s fourth and last German HDW Type 1500 SSK submarine was assembled there in 1994. The HDW boats are the most recent of the IN’s ageing and fast depleting underwater fleet.
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4,000 advanced Milan 2T ATGMs over the next three years. The Army’s newly acquired 647 Russian T-90s Bhishma Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) which are under import and local assembly since 2001 in addition to another 1000 that are to be built locally at the Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi near Chennai, too are equipped with Thales’ Catherine Thermal Imaging (TI) camera, that is at the heart of the tank’s fire control system. More recently, in March 2010, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved payment of an additional $ 413 million to France’s DCNS for the import of varied crucial components essential for the Scorpene’s stalled construction like engines, generators, varied components and sub-assemblies and raw material like special steel. Contentious price negotiations with DCNS over these items since end-2006 delayed the Scorpene programme by at least two-three years to 2014-2015. France is also linked to India’s locally designed and HAL constructed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv that is powered by the SNECMATurbomeca TM 333 2B2 engine some 72 of
which have been acquired so far. These engines will eventually be replaced by the PM 333B Shakti power pack, a HALSNECMA-Turbomecca joint development which successfully powered the maiden test flight in March 2010 of the indigenously developed, Dhruv derivative light combat helicopter. The Indian Army, too, is not without its share of French equipment deploying the Milan/Milan 2 anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) which since 1983 has been manufactured by the state-owned Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) in Hyderabad. Last year, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) inked a deal with MBDA to transfer technology to BDL to build some
Earlier, in 2004, the IAF acquired 66 BAE Systems Hawk 132 advanced jet trainers (AJTs) from the UK for $ 1.1 billion. Plans to acquire another 57 AJTs—40 more for the IAF and 17 for the IN—include, other than BAE, possible European vendors like the Czech Republic’s Aero Vodochody’s L159 and Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi M 346 besides Korean and Russian models. The Hawk procurement followed the July 1979 acquisition of 40 IS/IB ground attack Jaguars from BAE followed by another 108 built under licence by HAL comprising the backbone of the IAF’s ground attack fleet. The IAF also operates the Jaguar IM version that has been locally modified for maritime operations but has lost some 40 of these fighters in accidents.
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With the Jaguar acquisition, India’s association with Rolls-Royce deepened after HAL began manufacturing under licence the Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour Mk 804/Mk 811 engine that powered the ground attack fighters. More recently, Rolls-Royce installed and tested its Adour Mk 821 turbofan in a Sepecat Jaguar as part of a bid to win a contract to re-engine the IAF’s 120-strong Jaguar fleet. With India as its third largest customer for military equipment, Rolls-Royce, which has maintained a local presence for 54 years, is also collaborating with HAL to build engines, gas turbines and associated equipment. HAL is a contributor to Rolls-Royce’s civil aviation business after it began supplying ring forgings for its Trent family of engines around 2003. Rolls-Royce that currently has 1,0001,300 military aircraft engines in operation across India has also launched its new wholly-owned subsidiary—Rolls-Royce Operations India Limited—in Bangalore to manage and develop the growing volume of engineering work that it is increasingly outsourcing to India. Meanwhile, INS Viraat (ex-HMS Hermes) the IN’s lone Centaur class aircraft carrier and its air-arm, comprising BAE Systems Sea Harrier FRS Mk 51 fighters that began entering service 1983 onwards and are presently undergoing a limited upgrade, were also a central part of India’s UK-supplied military inventory. Earlier, the IN’s first second-hand carrier, the Majestic class INS Vikrant (formerly HMS Hercules) was retired in 1997 after 36 years of service. Some 80-100 UK-based defence companies like Pearson Engineering too were involved in building mine ploughs—with the State-owned Bharat Earth Movers Limited—for the T-72M1 MBT fleet whilst others were developing tactical communication systems for the Army, nuclear biological and chemical detection and protection kits, tank tracks, artillery calibration instrumentation, remote motion censors and multi-spectral camouflage nets. More recently, the MoD has approached the US Government to acquire 145 BAE Systems M777 155mm/39 calibre Light Weight Howitzer (LWH) and SELEX Laser Inertial Artillery Pointing Systems evaluated at $647 million via the foreign military sales programme. BAE systems was also fielding its 155mm/52 calibre FH 77 B05 L52 howitzer for trials in support of the Army’s