India Moves Forward on New Fighter

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Reuters is reporting that the Indian government plans to move forward with the next step for their new fighter program. This illustrates the county’s commitment to upgrade their military over the next decade. This will be a series of trials of the six aircraft proposed. In the U.S. it would be called a flyoff. It allows the companies participating to demonstrate the capability of their product under some realistic conditions to the customer. To add to the realism the companies will train Indian military pilots to fly the aircraft in a variety of missions and weather conditions. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, MiG, Eurofighter, SAAB and Daussalt are participating in the bid. Lately India has turned to the U.S. rather then its predominantly Russian or English suppliers for their military buying transports from Lockheed and patrol aircraft from Boeing. If there is a significant downturn in U.S. defense spending as is expected then sales to other nations will hopefully make up some of the market loss.

Tags: U.S., Lockheed Martin Corp., Aircraft, Boeing Co., Military, Aerospace & Defense, Manufacturing, Matthew Potter

Matthew Potter works supporting US Army aviation programs. He holds degrees in history as well as studying at the Defense Acquisition University. He has written for Seeking Alpha and at his own website, Defense Procurement News.

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1

kushsingh

08/26/09 | Report as spam

RE: India Moves Forward on New Fighter

I think in spite of purchase new fighters from other companies , we should still with our old friend , Russia , with purchasing more nos. of SU-30 MKI and producing more numbers of LCA (specially mend for Indian conditions)
2

Dagpotter

09/04/09 | Report as spam

RE: India Moves Forward on New Fighter

Thank you for reading. You are right that India has a good relationship with Russia and has invested in SU-27/30 aircraft. I think with this contract the Indian military is looking at investing in more modern western technology. It is also easier for the U.S. and European companies to meet the offset requirements.