NEW DELHI – India has begun a fresh program to acquire single-engine fighter aircraft to be built in India on the basis of foreign technology,\u00a0as invitations have been sent privately through Indian\u00a0Embassies to “some overseas participants” to partake in the\u00a0program,\u00a0according to an official at the Ministry of Defence (MoD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the planes expected to be in the running are Lockheed Martin’s F-16\u00a0Block 70 and Saab’s Gripen E.
“If it is single-engine fighter, there are mainly two: Lockheed\u00a0Martin\u00a0and Saab,” Muthumanikam Matheswaran, retired Indian Air Force Air Marshal says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It appears that Lockheed Martin and Saab would get shortlisted if it\u00a0is\u00a0confirmed that only three countries, including Russia, have been<\/p>\n\n\n\n
approached\u00a0to seek their response,” Daljit Singh, retired IAF Air Marshal and\u00a0defense\u00a0analyst, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement for a fresh fighter program comes within a month after India committed to buying 36 Rafale fighters from France at a cost of $8.85 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defense officials here have given no detail about the how the overseas vendor will\u00a0be\u00a0picked, but analysts say a government-to-government transaction will be the\u00a0preferred path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It would also be reasonable to infer that India is mulling a\u00a0Government-to-Government (G2G) deal. Selection will, of course, be<\/p>\n\n\n\n
based on\u00a0trials and price offered by the manufacturers from these countries,”\u00a0says\u00a0Amit Cowshish, MoD’s former additional financial adviser.
The recently contracted Rafale, the domestically-produced Tejas Light Combat Aircraft\u00a0and the\u00a0Sukhoi SU-30MKI will not be able to fill the gap in the fleet\u00a0strength, said an Indian Air Force official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The purchase of an additional single-engine fighter aircraft \u00a0will\u00a0not affect the homemade Tejas, say analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new plane, if eventually acquired, would be the ninth type\u00a0of Indian fighter\u00a0aircraft, joining an inventory of Sukhoi-30MKI, Mirage 2000, Jaguar,\u00a0MiG-29, MiG-27, MiG-21, Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and\u00a0Rafale jets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While IAF hunts for a new vendor to build planes in India,\u00a0analysts say the government can ensure in the selection that adequate<\/p>\n\n\n\n
technologies\u00a0are transferred that can help other ongoing aerospace programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
” A long-term partnership that involves large production in India and\u00a0addresses exports jointly will result in significant technology flow. …\u00a0The partnership should be mandated such that\u00a0maximum advantage is gained for Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
development,” says Matheswaran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Indian Air Force IAF has proposed to build locally a fifth-generation aircraft, the AMCA,\u00a0but the program is only in the concept stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India has begun a fresh program to acquire single-engine fighter aircraft to be built in India on the basis of foreign technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":83613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3390],"class_list":["post-42766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-global"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"U43FVWZBABDGBODVANOP2RQQJM","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2016\/10\/12\/india-launches-global-search-for-single-engine-fighter-jets\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n