NEW DELHI \u2014 A reassessment of Air Force priorities has jeopardized India’s first effort to produce military aircraft in the domestic private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US $3.5 billion program would have replaced aging Avro transport aircraft, a tender for which was issued in 2013, but new Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar has urged that weapon purchases be prioritized because major hikes in defense spending hikes <\/span>are not expected in the near future, said a Defence Ministry source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India’s first ever <\/span>effort to produce military aircraft in the domestic private sector faces failure because the Indian <\/span>Ministry of Defence (MoD) <\/span> has asked the Indian <\/span> Air Force (IAF) <\/span> to reassess its need to buy from the market transport aircraft worth US $3.5 billion to replace its <\/span>aging Avro transport aircraft, a tender for which was issued in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government decided in July 2014 that the tender should be reserved for domestic private sector companies as production partners and state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.imited<\/span> (HAL) (cq) <\/span> was excluded from the program. Only Airbus Defence and Space, proposing the (ADS) <\/span>of Spain <\/span>with its offer of <\/span> C-295 in a tie up with domestic private sector defense <\/span>major Tata Advanced Systems, (TASL), a Tata Group company <\/span> has filed aits<\/span> bid for the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Avro replacement tender invites foreign vendors to identify an Indian private sector partner, supply 16 aircraft made abroad and manufacture 40 at a facility set up in India with the local partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukraine’s Antonov (cq) <\/span>Design Bureau, which had earlier evinced interest in the program, did not file aits<\/span> bid because the company cannot commit <\/span>transfer of <\/span>technology as the majority of the systems are sourced from <\/span>Russia’s Voronezh Aircraft Production Association. <\/span>(cq) <\/span><\/span>and <\/span>Moscow has now <\/span>stopped export of these technologies to the Ukrainian company in the wake of political developments there, according to a Defence Ministry source.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Airbus had tied up with [Tata]TASL<\/span> for the Avro tender with the hope that they would (Airbus and TASL) <\/span>will<\/span> together draw major plans to join hands in the aero market, including joint production of a variety of helicopters” said an executive of the Tata group. “All future plans in the aerospace sector are now put on the shelf again,” the executive added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the Air Force reassesses its part of the fresh exercise to reassess the Air Force’s<\/span>priority <\/span>needs, the of the IAF, <\/span>Avro replacement is likely to be given a low priority figure low in the wish list <\/span> and the project Avro fleet replacement <\/span> may put <\/span>be put on hold, the MoD source added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No Air Force official of IAF <\/span>would publicly comment on the priority list under preparation, but an Air Force source said one reason in IAF <\/span>said <\/span>that buying new <\/span>aircraft to replace the for <\/span>Avros replacement <\/span>could be viewed as a low priority is figure lower in the priority list <\/span>because India is and Russia are <\/span>negotiating joint production and development of has a proposal to jointly produce and <\/span>develop <\/span>medium transport aircraft with Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. (UAC). It has also purchased US transports.oration.<\/span>(MTA) <\/span>with Russia, which is in the final stages of negotiation.<\/span>