Posted on 01/17/2009 5:12:56 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Gripen Denies It Failed MMRCA Evaluation
Jan 16, 2009
By Neelam Mathews
Gripen is denying a news report in a local daily claiming the company will be left out of field trials for India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition because it didn’t make the grade with the Indian Air Force’s Technical Evaluation Committee.
The technical report is said to have been submitted to the Indian ministry of defense in mid-November of last year. It now has to be approved by the ministry before the field trials can begin.
Eddy de la Motte, director of Gripen International in India, told Aerospace DAILY, “Whether any of the competitors has failed to meet the cut for field evaluation or not is a question that should be put to the Indian Air Force. We firmly believe the report does not have any basis and the news is incorrect.
“Gripen meets or exceeds every operational requirement raised by the IAF in all roles — air-to-air fighter, [beyond visual range/within visual range], air-to-surface land and sea, and reconnaissance,” de la Motte added.
The six contenders for the 126-aircraft program also include Boeing’s F/A-18E/F, Lockheed Martin F-16, EADS Eurofighter, Dassault Aviation’s Rafale and the Russian Aircraft Corporation’s (RAC) MiG-35.
“It defeats the purpose for the air force not to experience all the six aircraft,” one senior official said. “We have nothing to lose to check them all out.” This substantiates another source that tells Aerospace DAILY that all six contenders are scheduled to participate in hot/cold trials beginning in April.
There has been speculation that with India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft slated to enter production in 2012, the Gripen acquisition may become extraneous. However, Gripen says it is not competing with the LCA. “In fact, the LCA program could benefit immensely from this array of technology, which Saab is happy to transfer,” de la Motte said.
The Gripen IN is a medium-weight multi-role fighter aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight 16.5 ton. The company says it is on schedule for delivery ahead of the other aircraft in contention for the MMRCA program.
Gripen has indicated that a “wide range of state-of-the-art weapons can be sourced from manufacturers worldwide, giving the Indian Air Force freedom of choice by avoiding sole source supply constraints.”
I'm impressed that the plane speaks for itself. Usually the company producing it, in this case Saab, would hire a spokesman.
I believe Gripen here refers to Gripen International, which has SAAB and BAE Systems as share-holders (and some Swedish Government support). G.I usually hawks the Gripen, not SAAB.
Yea, I assumed, I just thought that "Gripen" was a bit flip coming from Aviation Week.
I feel bad for the poor Swedes. They make a fine fighter plane, but there appears to be only two market segments, i.e. The best and the cheapest. They are neither.
You forgot one category which often overrules the other two-politically strongest!! The Swedes are lightweights at that.
I’ll be very surprised if the MiG-35 isn’t chosen.
I am very sad to say but the fact is that we are rapidly at a point where only 4- 5 countries will be able to produce the fighter jets of the next era. Those countries (blocs) are the US, EU, China, India and Japan.
Notice that I have left out Russia. Here is my reason why. Russia has some of the FINEST Engineers and some of the FINEST fighter jet building heritage. It is quite possible that the Mig 35 and the new fifth Gen fighter from Sukhoi will be good jets.
However they will be the last hurrahs. It takes over $10-20 BILLION (with a capital B) to develop a new generation jet and even that cost is basically fake as you need an order run of $50 Billion + to finally justify the production of that plane.
That number is out of the reach of most countries except for the five mentioned above. If you read my list you will see that I mentioned EU and not Germany, France and the UK because, incredible as it seems, none of those countries individually can do it.
For those of you that point that the economy of UK, Germany and France is bigger than India today, I will reply that in a decade India’s will be bigger (just like China became the third largest economy this week overtaking Germany). Secondly because India is building its military infrastructure they are able to (politically) spend a far higher percentage of their GDP on Defense compared to what voters in the UK, Germany and France will allow.
Indeed. You are correct.
Highly unlikely-that would make it too many eggs in a Russian basket-the SU-30 and the 5th generation fighter being already agreed.Besides, the Mig-35 has the least to offer in terms of advanced tech other than its thrust-vectoring nozzles.
I think you are are somewhat right. Given the way Russia has been blackmailing us esp. wrt to deals like INS Vikramaditya (Groshkov) and the Akulas deal, I doubt if our govt. will again go for Russian junk. Su-30’s were the best mil hardware I have seen from Russian. But these fighters had to be supplemented with French, Indian and Israeli tech before they became one of the best in the world. To top if off, Mig-35 is basically Mig-29OVT. Nothing new in it. So F-18’s are the best choice for IAF.
Why “sad” that only a few nations or blocs will be able to produce fighters? Many believe that the mega-tech, mega-mega priced, fifth-gen, air-superiority fighter is little more than a magnificent anachronism, a Noble Steed for today’s Chivalrous, Frivolous Knight of the Air, ready, willing, and able to re-win World War II, but too expensive, valuable, vulnerable, and rare to actually forward-deploy to the same continent that my National Guard daughter now inhabits.
Until the Russians stop producing modern aircraft, there will be a good reason to keep a capability to shoot them down.
Surface to Air Missiles have never delivered on their promise of controlling airspace.
Actually, there is only one that has shown the ability to produce a Gen 5 fighter, and that is the USA. Russia has the talent, but not the money. The EU lacks the will. Japan has shown no interest in marketing military hardware and lacks the domestic market to support it.
What really amazes me is that Sweden (10 million people) is still building fighters on its own. The rest of Europe (save France) gave up doing that thirty years ago.
Shoot-downs? SAMs? We’re back to the future, I’ll bet. Next big, superpowered war most likely won’t even be a shooting war, and will be over before any F-35 jumpjets can get into the air. Economic blackmail and infotech, worm-and-virus-sabotage chess, with the loser finding out he’s been fatally checkmated before he even realized that the game was on - that’s what’s coming.
HaHa!! (In any case) this Mathews actually gives impression to the thought that his paper believes Gripen is a company!
Next time I encouter print-outs of Neelam Mathews’s views I expect them to emerge out of a toilet paper roll.
If we aren't capable of defending ourselves, I guarantee you that it will be a shooting war.
Gripen International is the Swedish company which acts as a prime contracting organization, responsible for marketing, selling and supporting the Gripen fighter worldwide.
http://www.gripen.com/en/GripenInternational/GripenInternational.htm
“Gripen International is the Swedish company which acts as a prime contracting organization, responsible for marketing, selling and supporting the Gripen fighter worldwide.”
- OK, I stand corrected. But I still feel the author of the article ought to have pointed that out.
Regards from Gothenburg, Sweden!
Actually Neelam is a woman’s name,, so you probably ought to say her paper!!
I think 'India' should be 'India-Russia,' since the co-operation between the two nations in aerospace co-development will continue. Russia has the technical knowhow, and India has the surplus of funds. This is why they are working together on their 5th-generation airplane, even though India has now gained much better access to Western (read: American) aircraft. Going forward this will still be the case, even as India's technological base approaches that of Russia. Why? Simply because even though at that stage they could simply buy the F-35 (which would be made available to them, with some talk from Lockheed of that being an option last year), they would not be foolish enough to put all their eggs in the American basket. Secondly, Russia has always been far more flexible. Thirdly, even a future-advanced India (like any economy, even the US as can be seen with the F-35 program and how it was farmed out) needs to spread risk and costs ....and thus even if some point in the future India was technologically advanced not to need any Russian involvement, they would still be tied to each other since each would need the other.
Then, ofcourse, there is China which, with its competing aerospace industry that is also trying to bring to being 5th-generation airframes like the JXX, will be a COMMON threat to both India and Russia. While American technology would be far better, it would also be far more expensive. All the Indians/Russians need to do is stay a couple of steps ahead of the Chinese (which they can), and do so in a cost-effective manner (which they easily could together). If an American solution is a 2 million Dollar 'pur sang' Bugatti Veyron hyper-car with its 16 cylinders and four radiators (yes, you read that right), and the Chinese problem a 80,000 Dollar (15K for the car, 65K for the enhancements) souped-up Rice-burner Civic with NoS, then the Indian-Russian solution would be a bloody twin-turbo Venom 1000 Hennessey Viper going for US 200,000. Not as good or as fast or as cutting-edge as the Bugatti, but quite capable all the same at the top end, and more importantly, good enough to make the super-souped Civic look like molasses.
Thus, I'd say that there will be constant co-operation between Russia and India, even if India manages to get to the same level of development in the future as Russia (and even if India gets even deeper access to Uncle Sam's toy chest) ....and also even if Russia manages to get the fund flows from oil and gas constantly high and if gas is at 200 bucks a barrel! Even under those best of circumstances for each, they will still co-operate into an amalgam similar to what you see in Europe ...only far tighter.
Exceptionally well written reply with thorough detail. I totally agree.
Well done and thank you for raising the level of conversation on FR to a new high.
Thank you again!
As the top power, the US is in a tough position- our military needs to be able to beat any other military in the world. Most other countries are in a better situation. India, for example, doesn't need to have better military technology than everyone else in the world. Their strategic situation requires them to be able to decisely beat Pakistan and fight off any potential Chinese attack (which is far less likely). India doesn't need the best military tech- it just needs to be better than its potential enemies.
Other countries have it even better. Look at, for example, the UK. They have no real enemies that present an existential threat and not a huge need to project power around the world. Not surprisingly, their military has continuosly shrunk since the end of the Cold War.
The Superbug would fit the bill for the MMRCA competition, because the Typhoon is a ripoff because EADS-Eurofighter made it that way, the Rafale has bugged out because of the Froggish arrogance from Dassault Aviation, the Viper is in service with the PAF, the Gripen because Saab Aerospace made it closely resemble the Tejas in performance and appearance, minus the canards and the Fulcrum-F means more fat for the Indian MiG fleet.
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