Posted on 09/24/2016 6:26:29 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
NEW DELHI—India is being offered blueprints to advanced combat aircraft by the world’s aerospace companies, a move unthinkable even a decade ago, as New Delhi gets ready to place another multibillion-dollar air force order.
India’s aging military jet fleet desperately needs an upgrade, which analysts say may spur it to place an order worth more than $10 billion in the next year. Hoping for an edge, and encouraged by a recent law that allows 100% foreign ownership of local defense firms, jet-fighter makers such as Lockheed Martin Corp. , Boeing Co. and Saab AB are rushing in with offers to set up production lines to India.
Efforts to give India unprecedented access to jet fighter know-how illustrate the country’s rising importance to the West as China’s power increases, analysts say.
India, until a decade ago, was trying stubbornly to build its own jets, after the U.S. and Japan imposed sanctions following its nuclear tests in 1998, which broke U.S. nonproliferation laws and sparked tensions with Pakistan. U.S. companies were blocked from giving India the technology it needed.
Relations between India and the U.S. have improved since, as both share a goal to contain China’s military. India has struck deals with the U.S. to buy everything from Apache helicopters to transport planes and artillery, lifting the country to India’s second-biggest defense trading partner behind Russia.
“China’s rise has changed the equation,” said Pushan Das, a fellow with the Observer Research Foundation, a policy think tank based in New Delhi. Industry experts estimate India needs over 300 new combat jets in the next 15 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
They should forget Saab ,Sweden is about to implode
You need to tell that to Boeing too ... Saab is the main partner on the development of Boeing’s new TX trainer offering for the USAF. That contract would range from at least 300 to around 1,000 aircraft!!
Didn’t India’s deal to buy over 100 Rafales fall through after years of aircraft trials and negotiations? India never seems to get anything done without years of bureaucratic hell - if they’re just considering buying foreign-made planes now, I’d expect the deal to be consummated sometime in the second half of the century.
India tried to strike a licensing deal to have HAL build Rafales, but they couldn’t settle on a price.
Latest is that India just signed a deal for 36 French built Rafales.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.