The US may be bagging lucrative Indian defence deals, notching up sales worth over $11 billion in the military aviation sector alone, but it cannot get over the fact that New Delhi does not want its fighter jets.
Just a couple of days ahead of a crucial Indian defence ministry's meeting, which will set the stage for eventual selection of either Eurofighter Typhoon or French Rafale for IAF's over $10-billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project, the US has again dangled the bait of an advanced 5th-generation fighter before India.
Dubbing as a "setback" the ejection of its F/A-18 `Super Hornets' and F-16 `Falcons' out of the MMRCA race after the technical evaluation, Pentagon on Wednesday told the US Congress that it was prepared to offer its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) - the F-35 `Lightning-II' - to India. While the F-35 is a generation ahead of the MMRCA contenders, the IAF is looking to order 126 of 4th-Gen-plus fighters like Typhoons or Rafales, with another 63 probably at a later stage that will take the overall project cost to well beyond $20 billion.
India has embarked on the path to co-develop its own 5th-Gen fighter, based on the Russian Sukhoi T-50 prototype, with New Delhi and Moscow inking a $295-million preliminary design contract (PDC) last December.
But with India intending to spend a staggering over $35 billion to induct at least 166 single-seat and 48 twin-seat 5th-Gen fighters from 2020 onwards, the US is reluctant to give up easily.
In a report on US-India security cooperation, which otherwise dwelt on the expansive bilateral military ties, Pentagon said, "Despite the (MMRCA) setback, we believe US aircraft, such as JSF, to be the best in the world."
It added, "Should India indicate interest in the JSF, US would be prepared to provide information on the fighter and its requirements (infrastructure, security etc) to support India's future planning."
This is not the first time the F-35 bait has been dangled, but India has refused to bite so far. Senior defence officials say India neither wants nor can afford two types of 5th-Gen fighters. "It would be a financial, maintenance and logistical nightmare. The F-35 programme itself has been hit by huge cost overruns," said a top official.
Another official added, "The crucial full design phase with Russia of our stealth 5th-Gen fighter, the perspective multi-role fighter with supercruise, ultra-manoeuvrability and internal carriage of weapons, will be launched by next June-July."
He said, "Tons of documents are being exchanged. Apart from 40 of our scientists, designers and others being positioned in Russia, secure data links will be established for real-time communication between the two sides. Once the detailed designs are frozen, prototype development and manufacture will begin."
While this 5th-Gen fighter will be the mainstay in the future, the IAF is looking at 270 Sukhoi-30MKIs contracted from Russia for about $12 billion, the 126 MMRCA and 120 indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, apart from 110 upgraded MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s, to defend the skies in the medium term.
BANGALORE: The made-in-India Sukhoi (Su-30MKI) is up and flying. Amid Diwali fireworks, the Ozar air base in Nashik witnessed a silent, yet stellar affair. The desi Sukhoi, a 4.5 generation fighter, took to the skies for the first time and performed a 55-minute supersonic ballet. Also flying high was the Swadeshi pride considering that this was the first aircraft manufactured from a complete raw material phase. The striking feature was the pilots pulling 9g at the first attempt itself, a pointer to its structural integrity.
Indian Air Force (IAF) sources confirmed to Express that the Sukhoi was piloted by Wg Cdr S C Sharma with co-pilot Wg Cdr S S Mallick in the rear. The Aircraft Manufacturing Division of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Nashik, produced this metal bird with close to 28,000 parts and using 1,20,000 tools.
“This flight was undertaken with full confidence in the technical prowess and expertise of HAL. It went smoothly as planned and the aircraft handled beautifully,” the pilots were quoted by sources after touch-down.
HAL has so far delivered 99 Sukhois to the IAF, out of a total order of 180, produced under licence from Russia at an approximate cost of Rs 250-300 crore each. The raw material phase Sukhoi is the first from Phase-IV of the project. The avionics and accessories have come from HAL’s Lucknow, Hyderabad and Korwa divisions, while the engine was produced at Koraput.
“HAL will have to complete the deliveries by 2014-15, but we expect a delay of three years,” IAF sources said. Express has learnt that the delay in the design and development phase of Sukhoi in Russia impacted the receipt of technology and tooling in India. HAL too had issues in absorbing new technologies.
Two days before the MMRCA bid opening ceremony in New Dehli, the US State Department released a congressionally-mandated report on US-India Security Cooperation with this statement tucked into the penultimate paragraph:
"The U.S. F-16 and F-18 competed, but were not down-selected, in the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition in April 2011. Despite this setback, we believe U.S. aircraft, such as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), to be the best in the world. Should India indicate interest in the JSF, the United States would be prepared to provide information on the JSF and its requirements (infrastructure, security, etc.) to support India's future planning."
It's not the first time India has heard the F-35 soft-sell.
Since 2007, US emissaries from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Lockheed vice president Rob Weiss have reminded India that the F-35 is available to them if they only wait a few more years to replace those aging MiG-21s.
The concept implies that India is missing out on Lockheed's trademarked "fifth-generation" fighter technology by considering only the Rafale and Typhoon. Of course, India has other ideas about how to acquire such technology. The IAF has partnered with Sukhoi to develop the FGFA, which includes one- and two-seat versions of the Russian PAK-FA. The Ministry of Defense has also launched the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) programme, which seeks to develop a stealthy fighter in the class of the F-35, Rafale and Typhoon.
Given India's weapons procurement history, which included a 23-year development cycle for the Hindustan Aeronautics Tejas light combat aircraft, the prospects for the successful, timely delivery of the FGFA and AMCA can be debated.
If US officials could dream, the perfect scenario would perhaps unfold like this: The IAF official opens the Rafale and Typhoon bids on 4 November, and instantly passes out from sticker-shock. After the official is revived with a nasal blast of cumin powder, the MMRCA acquisition process is put back on hold. The next two or three years pass uneventfully, and finally the IAF decides to buy the F-35 sole-source as the only available fighter on the market possessing a combination of stealth and sensor fusion.
It's time for India to place its bets, and so can you. What do you think will happen:
a) IAF buys Rafale
b) IAF buys Eurofighter
c) IAF immediately or eventually suspends MMRCA and selects F-35
d) none of the above.
New York: The Pentagon submitted a Congressionally-mandated review of defence ties with New Delhi on Tuesday and expressed eagerness to sell Lockheed Martin’s super advanced F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to India.
With an eye on China, the US has been keen to press for closer military co-operation with India. New Delhi, though, prefers to hedge its bets. In late April, despite personal lobbying by President Barack Obama, New Delhi eliminated the top two US contenders — Lockheed’s F-16 jet fighter and Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet— from its shortlist of suppliers for the air force’s $11 billion fourth generation of advanced fighter jets.
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Lockheed Martin
Aircraft on the shortlist were Dassault Aviation SA’s Rafale and the Eurofighter made by BAE Systems, Finmeccanica SpA and European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co.
Shocked by the Indian rejection, the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, which oversees the US Department of Defence, ordered the Pentagon to submit a report by November 1 on the state of India-US defence ties. It also asked for a detailed assessment on the “desirability and feasibility” of the future sale of F-35s to India, and a potential US partnership with New Delhi to co-develop military weapon systems.
“Should India indicate interest in the JSF, the United States would be prepared to provide information on the JSF and its requirements,” the Defence Department said in a nine-page report.
The eye-popping price tag for individual F-35 joint strike fighters — range from $75 million to $150 million, depending upon the estimate. On the upside, the pricey but highly automated F-35 will likely lead to fewer human-error or “pilot-distraction” crashes.
The F-35 is fitted with radar-evading stealth technology and is a multi-role fighter jet that can carry out tactical bombing and air defence missions.
“The F-35 is a fifth generation fighter that will provide the Indian Air Force with a quantum leap in capability and mission execution across the full spectrum of conflict,” a US defence official told Firstpost, asking not to be named.
The Ministry of Defence is ambivalent about the F-35, because of New Delhi’s preliminary design contract for co-development of a fifth-generation fighter recently signed with Moscow. Russia’s Sukhoi and India’s Hindustan Aeronautics are developing a fighter based on Sukhoi’s T-50 design at a cost of $6 billion. Russia is planning to use the jointly-developed fighter as an export version of T-50, while India is expecting the aircraft to enter its fleet by 2020.
America doesn’t want Russia to steal the march and is keeping the window for US-India collaboration open. India is happy playing the field. New Delhi has urged the US to give it more access to technology so that the two countries can develop weapons together, especially in the aerospace sphere.
“The US wants to develop deeper defence industrial cooperation with India, including a range of cooperative research and development,” said the Pentagon report. “The US is committed to providing India with top-of-the-line technology.”
India has begun to modernize its old, Soviet-era military equipment and diversify its weapons supply base. It recently made top-dollar purchases of US military transport and reconnaissance aircraft.
The Pentagon report also says that US efforts for the next five years will place particular emphasis on “maritime security, counter-terrorism activities and expanding defence trade and armaments cooperation.” Washington sees New Delhi as a key security partner in the Indian Ocean region, increasingly joining with the US military in use of force planning to address regional contingencies.
The U.S. Defense Department offered India technology sharing and talks on its top weapons program, Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, to gain more security cooperation in the face of regional competition from China.
“Should India indicate interest in the JSF, the United States would be prepared to provide information on the JSF and its requirements,” including on security and infrastructure, the Defense Department said yesterday in a congressionally mandated report on U.S.-India security cooperation.
More joint work on science and technology “may lead to co- development opportunities with India as a partner,” the Defense Department said in the report.
The nine-page review of defense ties with India was prepared in response to a legislative provision sponsored earlier this year by Senate Armed Services Committee members Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Cornyn, a Texas Republican. Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 in Texas. United Technologies Corp. makes the plane’s engines in Connecticut.
“Our two governments must be proactive in finding new ways to take on emerging security challenges together,” Lieberman said yesterday in an e-mail, citing cybersecurity and counterterrorism.
Nuclear Technology
The report reflects the desire by successive U.S. administrations to convince India to increase security cooperation and buy American equipment as it expands and modernizes its military. The push included a years-long fight for congressional approval in 2008 of an agreement intended to clear the way for U.S. manufacturers such as General Electric Co. to sell India nuclear-energy technology.
The U.S. expected the nuclear-energy agreement to help increase a range of technology sales to India, especially in the defense sector.
The Pentagon report alludes to disappointing results. It cites the “setback” in April, when Lockheed’s F-16 jet fighter and Boeing Co.’s F/A-18 Super Hornet were eliminated from the $11 billion Indian competition to replace the subcontinent’s aging fleet of 1970s-era MiG-21s.
Aircraft on the shortlist were Dassault Aviation SA’s Rafale and the Eurofighter made by BAE Systems Plc, Finmeccanica SpA and European Aeronautic, Defense & Space Co.
Weapons Cooperation
Lockheed Martin said in June it may offer the F-35 stealth fighter to India. The Cornyn-Lieberman requirement for the security cooperation report helped open an avenue to do that, Lockheed Senior Vice President Patrick Dewar said in a June interview at the Paris Air Show.
Laurie Quincy, a spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin, declined to comment on yesterday’s report.
India has urged the U.S. to give it more access to technology so that the two countries can develop weapons together. The Pentagon acknowledged that goal in the report.
“The United States wants to develop deeper defense industrial cooperation with India, including a range of cooperative research and development,” they wrote in the assessment. “The United States is committed to providing India with top-of-the-line technology.”
The Cornyn-Lieberman provision had called for the Pentagon to assess the potential for jointly developing equipment such as a replacement for the U.S. Air Force T-38 trainer jet. Yesterday’s report didn’t specifically address that system.
Efforts for the next five years will place “particular emphasis on maritime security and counterterrorism activities and expanding defense trade and armaments cooperation,” the Pentagon reported.
* India has 2 airbases at Leh & Thoise
* China has 6 fully-functional airfields adjoining Ladakh
In the vast windswept and barren landscape that divides India and China in southeastern Ladakh, temperatures can drop to a numbing minus 10 degree Celsius at the start of winter. What’s more bone chilling for India is recent military developments in western parts of Tibet and Xinjiang province in China that pose a new challenge for Indian defence establishment and its forces.Fortress-like three-storey Chinese observation post across the LAC in south-eastern Ladakh.
There can be no masking the fact that India needs to prioritise and speed up its thrust into eastern Ladakh. Setting up of vital airfields, infrastructure on the LAC, storehouses for supplies and better accommodation for troops just cannot be postponed any more.
At the beginning of October, the Indian Defence Ministry gave its nod to develop an airfield at Nyoma and expand the one at Kargil. At present India has two full-fledged airbases at Leh and Thoise.
Meanwhile, China has readied six airbases on its side in areas of western Tibet and Xinjiang province adjoining Ladakh.
The Indian security establishment has irrefutable visual inputs on Chinese airfields. Beijing now has the capability to launch fighter aircrafts carrying deadly strike weapons or transport planes carrying tonnes of equipment or hundreds of troops to land then close to Indian forward defence lines along the LAC. These fully-functional airfields virtually form a ‘ring’ around Ladakh.
A senior official explained to The Tribune the fresh challenges saying Kashgar, Korla, Yarkand, Hotan, Cherchen (Qiemo) and Gardzong, have operational airfields. Large planes like the IL76 transporter operate from there. Last winter, the Chinese conducted a major military exercise and even operated their own version of the Sukhoi-30 fighter from at least three of these bases.
In India, only Leh and Thoise allow operations of all types of small and large planes. The Kargil airstrip is just 6,000-feet long and allows only smaller planes like AN32 or the C-130-Js to land. It will be expanded by the year 2016.
Nyoma in southeastern Ladakh is a mud-paved advanced landing ground (ALG). This sits at a junction from where three pressure points along the LAC-Demchok, Chushul and Chumar sector-are close by. Indian strategic planners have ruled out having a full operational usage of the ALG’s at Fukche and Chushul as they are deemed too close to China.
In China, the accommodation coming up is all in concrete. China terms the structures as the ‘nomad-huts’. The Indian Army suspects these are of dual use and can be converted into supply depots or even bunkers. The Chinese watch towers at Domshele and Demchok are three-storey high and are visibly well protected and insulated. The Indian side has basic amenities but those are way behind China.
A China-watcher at the New-Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, Dr K Yhome, says, “From a military point of view, the Chinese infrastructure of airfields, roads and rail-network threatens India. Our pace is not quick enough,” he adds.
It’s important that defence planners take note of his assessment.
