India has strategic ambitions to develop self-reliance in military aviation manufacture as it seeks to modernise its air defence with a $10bn contract for jet fighters, the head of India’s air force said on Tuesday.
Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, the chief of staff of the Indian air force, said India had the intellectual prowess and industrial expertise to grow its own aircraft manufacturing sector. But he acknowledged that it would be a “Herculean task” to wean the country’s military establishment off a heavy reliance on foreign expertise in some of its core competencies.
In the coming years, Chief Marshal Naik expected Indian metallurgy, turbine blades, communications, encryption technology and microchips to form a domestic industry that could supply the design, building and service of aircraft.
India has traditionally turned to Russia for the needs of its air force. The country is seeking to buy 126 jet fighters and has begun year-long trials of the aircraft. Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, France’s Dassault Rafale, Lockheed Martin’s F-16, Russia’s Mig-35, Sweden’s Saab JAS-39 Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon are all vying for the prize contract.
India, one of the world’s fastest-growing large economies, is also one of its biggest arms importers. The government plans to spend more than $30bn (€20bn, £18bn) over the next five years to overhaul its arsenal in the face of possible threats from Pakistan and China.
The comments by the head of the air force echo those of senior officers in the navy, which aims to add almost 100 warships to its fleet over the next decade, and develop its own low-cost shipbuilding capabilities.
Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, the director of the Centre for Air Power Studies, told the Financial Times that he foresaw Indian participation in the upgrading of existing aircraft rising rapidly over the next 15 years to between 50 per cent to 70 per cent, with greater Indian design and joint research and development.
In 40 years, with the introduction of a new generation of aircraft, he said that could rise to 80 per cent.
In the meantime, India faced the choice of joining the US and Europe as a partner in defence manufacture or teaming up in an eastern triumvirate with China and Russia, Air Commodore Singh said.
Some analysts have been encouraged by the achievements of India’s space programme as evidence that it has the ability to develop a larger aviation industry. Last year India sent a rocket to orbit the moon and has developed considerable expertise in satellite launches.
But some industry executives say the country is lagging far behind neighbouring China in its technological support for commercial and military aircraft in spite of sizeable orders from Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher for new fleets.
“The [Indian] aerospace industry is not at all energised. It is a bit [active] in space, but it’s not energised in defence or commercial areas,” Arunakar Mishra, the chief executive of Bangalore-based Genser Aerospace and Information Technologies, said.
“People coming out of the Indian air force help foreigners to sell equipment to India [and don’t develop local capacity].”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/67f53350-c312-11de-8eca-00144feab49a.html
Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, the chief of staff of the Indian air force, said India had the intellectual prowess and industrial expertise to grow its own aircraft manufacturing sector. But he acknowledged that it would be a “Herculean task” to wean the country’s military establishment off a heavy reliance on foreign expertise in some of its core competencies.
In the coming years, Chief Marshal Naik expected Indian metallurgy, turbine blades, communications, encryption technology and microchips to form a domestic industry that could supply the design, building and service of aircraft.
India has traditionally turned to Russia for the needs of its air force. The country is seeking to buy 126 jet fighters and has begun year-long trials of the aircraft. Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, France’s Dassault Rafale, Lockheed Martin’s F-16, Russia’s Mig-35, Sweden’s Saab JAS-39 Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon are all vying for the prize contract.
India, one of the world’s fastest-growing large economies, is also one of its biggest arms importers. The government plans to spend more than $30bn (€20bn, £18bn) over the next five years to overhaul its arsenal in the face of possible threats from Pakistan and China.
The comments by the head of the air force echo those of senior officers in the navy, which aims to add almost 100 warships to its fleet over the next decade, and develop its own low-cost shipbuilding capabilities.
Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, the director of the Centre for Air Power Studies, told the Financial Times that he foresaw Indian participation in the upgrading of existing aircraft rising rapidly over the next 15 years to between 50 per cent to 70 per cent, with greater Indian design and joint research and development.
In 40 years, with the introduction of a new generation of aircraft, he said that could rise to 80 per cent.
In the meantime, India faced the choice of joining the US and Europe as a partner in defence manufacture or teaming up in an eastern triumvirate with China and Russia, Air Commodore Singh said.
Some analysts have been encouraged by the achievements of India’s space programme as evidence that it has the ability to develop a larger aviation industry. Last year India sent a rocket to orbit the moon and has developed considerable expertise in satellite launches.
But some industry executives say the country is lagging far behind neighbouring China in its technological support for commercial and military aircraft in spite of sizeable orders from Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher for new fleets.
“The [Indian] aerospace industry is not at all energised. It is a bit [active] in space, but it’s not energised in defence or commercial areas,” Arunakar Mishra, the chief executive of Bangalore-based Genser Aerospace and Information Technologies, said.
“People coming out of the Indian air force help foreigners to sell equipment to India [and don’t develop local capacity].”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/67f53350-c312-11de-8eca-00144feab49a.html
No comments:
Post a Comment