Category — Defense/ Security

Earlier this week, India announced that the French built Rafale had beat out the runner-up Typhoon in a $10 billion fighter aircraft contract. The Typhoon, built by the Cassidian unit of EADS would have sustained thousands of jobs in Germany and the United Kingdom. Instead the work and jobs will go to Dassault Aviation, Safran/Snecma and others located outside UK/Germany.

In a shallow complaint, British Conservative  Member of Parliament, David Davis  is quoted as exhorting British Prime Minister Cameron to  “to pull his full weight to get India to change its mind” pointing out that “we give aid to India many times more than what France gives.”

Davis is sometimes touted as a possible future Prime Minister and should know better than to make such absurd statements. First of all, a UK company BAE won an earlier order to deliver 66  Hawk Trainer aircraft to India, valued at 700 million pounds. Second, since India became Independent in 1947, it has bought much British hardware. Third, a billion dollars of aid does not “buy” you ten billion dollars of sales. In fact most people would find such an equation repugnant. Fourth, if Davis checked his own BBC, he would find that India is among the largest inbound investors into the United Kingdom, including such icons as Land Rover, Jaguar and the former British Steel. And finally, some of the richest Brits are actually hard-working people of Indian origin, such as Laxmi Mittal,  Swaraj Paul, and Anil Aggarwal.

A few Indians might further add that if Davis wants to talk about history and aid, his calculations should include the wealth plundered by royal fiat over 200 years as first the British East India Company and then the Royal Crown reduced India from contributing about 20% of the world’s GDP down to about 2%. That’s probably hundreds of billions — maybe trillions – of dollars in today’s money.

What this means

I am an Anglophile and I love English culture, literature and all the good things things the British gave to India, most of all the English language. But MPs like Davis seem to pander to short term political needs and harm the greater interests of alignment between the British and Indian cultures and economies.

Davis’s outburst will probably soon be forgotten by all, and that would be for the best.

The  Rafale fighter jet, manufactured by the French company Dassault Aviation, has won India’s contract worth $10.4 billion, The Indian Air Force will buy 126 aircraft over the next ten years. In 2007, India invited proposals from six contenders, Russia’s  MiG- 35,Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Falcon, Boeing’s F-18/A Hornet, the Swedish Saab Gripen, Euro-Fighter Typhoon and Rafale. The formal contract  for the so-called Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) with Dassault will be signed after April 1, the beginning of India’s next financial year, giving life to an aircraft platform that might have otherwise been discontinued, according to a December 2011 quote by French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet

India will be the first overseas customer for the twin-engine delta-wing multi-role jet aircraft which is being produced both for land-based use with the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations with the French Navy.  In fact, French sailors landed the Rafale on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2008 as part of Operation Brimstone.

Dassault Rafale onboard the aircraft Theodore Roosevelt

The American contenders, Boeing and Lockheed Martin were eliminated from the competition in April last year. Both companies have other substantial wins in India for transport aircraft  (Hercules C130J and C-17 Globemaster) and reconnaissance airplanes (P8i Poseidon, see separate story)  .

The Rafale is typically outfitted with the Thales electronically scanned multi-mode radar. Air Liquide supplies an on-board oxygen generating system. Ejection seats are made by British company Martin-Baker (which has operations in France) and the engines are likely to be SNECMA M88-2 turbofans made by the Safran group. Most of the Tier 1 suppliers for this aircraft are French companies.
The contract requires delivery of the first 18 aircraft assembled in France. India’s state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. will build the remaining 108 through technology transfers. A 50 percent offset requirement ensures that at least $5 billion will be spent by Dassault in India and will open up a host of opportunities for Indian companies to expand their defense production capabilities. When the deal is fully delivered, India will be largest operator of the Rafale, since France’s own order is for about 80 airplanes. It is possible that the order could be expanded beyond 126 units to as many as 200 but this is not likely to happen for several years.

What this means

India’s largest single order is a result of a systematic and transparent process under its Defense Procurement Procedure. This is sharply different from the scandal-clad acquisitions of the past, such as the Bofors howitzer order.  Defense Minister AK Antony, know for his upright approach and the men in uniform who architected the DPP before Antony took control should bear credit for the victory of process over personality.

India celebrated its 63rd Republic Day on January  showing off its latest weapons at a military parade in the capital, Delhi. According to the BBC, thousands of people turned up at Rajpath (King’s Avenue) to watch the parade amid tight security. More than 25,000 policemen and paramilitary forces guarded the streets of Delhi and snipers were deployed on high-rise buildings.

The president, Pratibha Patil and the Prime Minster Dr. Manmohan Singh attended the show with the chief guest, Thailand’s  Prime Minister Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra.  Security was tight across India and thousands of policemen have been deployed in major cities and towns.

Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's Prime Minister (on left, in skirt) with Pratibha Patil, India's President (on right)

Today in California,  I am attending a celebration of Republic Day in San Francisco, hosted by Consul General Parthasarthi and his wife.

More photos from the parade in Delhi, hot off the press courtesy of India’s information bureau

ALH or Advanced Light Helicopters operated by India's Army

India's BSF or Border Security Force, shows off their motorbike skills

India's Defense R&D lab has designed and built this Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Rustom 1

According to the annual review of the news of 2011, Foreign Policy, ranked India at #1 in its list of Top Ten Stories you may have missed.

Comparing to China, the magazine said, India isn’t the only Asian giant investing heavily in new military hardware. India has kept pace with its neighbor to the north and, in some areas, is actually exceeding it — a development that, though much less noted, is a sign of the growing militarization of the region as a new generation of emerging powers with global ambitions jockeys for regional supremacy.

The publication chose to highlight India’s maritime power push. “India is focusing on sea power, a crucial new area of competition. The country is planning to spend almost $45 billion over the next 20 years on 103 new warships, including destroyers and nuclear submarines. By comparison, China’s investment over the same period is projected to be around $25 billion for 135 vessels.”  And it went to point out to its readers that for now, the United States seems much more comfortable with India’s military ambitions than China’s.

What this means

Even among the readership of an elite international publication, the awareness of India’s changing role in both the global strategic arena and the defense procurement landscape is not fully appreciated.

Number six of the six C-130J Super Hercules ordered by India, under the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS)  program, departed Lockheed’s Marietta,Georgia facility  on December 15. This aircraft, like its five predecessors, was delivered ahead of schedule and under budget, according to the supplier. Lockheed’s win was  the first large order placed on an American OEM by India’s Ministry of Defence in decades.

Lockheed is hopeful of a follow-on order of another six planes that would put the overall value of the two deals at close to two billion dollars.

According to NewKerala.com, in the aftermath of the 6.8 magnitude earthquake last September, a C-130J was the first of the planes to fly to the nearest air base in Baghdogra in West Bengal, carrying relief supplies and National Disaster Management Force members, within a flying time of under three hours. It also did several more sorties to carry relief material for the victims of the earthquake.