U.S firms look to air show to rebuild links with Indian military

Tuesday, 04 February 2003, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: U.S. military aviation majors, including Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopters, are looking to use the Aero India show to rebuild links with the Indian military, curtailed in recent years by sanctions. Aero India, to be held in Bangalore February 5-9, has attracted some 175 firms from 22 countries. The show, one of Asia's largest aerospace exhibitions, will see firms hawking a wide array of military aircraft they want to sell to India. Senior executives of U.S. firms are camping here to discuss potential sales, including offers to provide aircraft that could replace India's ageing fleet of Russian-designed fighters and transport aircraft. Lockheed Martin, whose relations with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) were snapped by Washington's sanctions following India's nuclear tests in May 1998, has now offered to co-produce T-50 trainer jets, F-16 fighters and C-130J Hercules transport aircraft with Indian players. "We lost time due to the sanctions but we have restarted dialogue (with HAL) and we are discussing certain classified areas in research and development," said Jagdish Malhotra, Lockheed Martin's national executive for India and Sri Lanka. Lockheed Martin had been collaborating with HAL to develop a digital flight control system for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), India's home-grown fighter before the sanctions came into force. Dennys Plessas, regional vice-president for Lockheed Martin, said his firm was willing to work with HAL to co-produce jet trainers and transport aircraft for the Indian military. "Lockheed Martin is seeking partnerships with (Indian) industry and military and Aero India is an excellent forum for that," he said. "The Indian Air Force (IAF) has a requirement for 20-tonne aircraft, and the Hercules can meet this." The U.S. firm will also benefit if India goes ahead with plans to lease up to 12 P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft from the U.S. armed forces. Lockheed Martin made the Orion but its production was stopped in 1995. It will, however, take care of maintenance of any Orions leased by India. Almost 70 percent of the hardware used by India's armed forces is of Russian origin, but New Delhi has begun looking in recent years to Israel, South Africa and France to diversify its sources of military equipment. Several aircraft of Russian origin used by the IAF, including MiG-21 fighters and An-32 transport aircraft, are nearing the end of their service life, and the U.S. firms are hoping New Delhi will choose their products as replacements. Bell, which will be showing off its Bell 407 helicopter at Aero India, is expected to make a bid for filling an Indian Army requirement for helicopters to be used at high altitudes, like the Siachen glacier in Jammu and Kashmir where soldiers are manning posts at heights of up to 21,000 feet. Despite growing military-to-military contacts between India and the U.S., American military sales have not taken off largely due to New Delhi's fears of sanctions. The only major deal signed by the two sides in recent years was Raytheon's $146 million contract last year for selling eight weapon-locating radars. But U.S. executives like Mike Kelley of Lockheed Martin believe these problems could be overcome if the deals are made under the "Foreign Military Sales" (FMS) programme, a government-to-government agreement whereby the U.S. government will guarantee the supply of military hardware. "We have advocated the FMS route for the proposals to supply the P-3 and the Hercules," he said.
Source: IANS
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