Posts Tagged 'MMRCA'

Bangalore student beats 2,400 to fly Gripen

Bangalore: A 22-year-old student from Bangalore-based BMS Engineering College will today be doing one thing that most of us can’t even dream of—fly a fighter jet.
A mechanical engineering student, Shashank HR outplayed 2,400 contestants to win the Gripen Top Guns contest, which would offer him a chance to fly the Gripen fighter jet.
On Saturday, five of the 2,400 took the final test: they were made to fly the Gripen flight simulator to choose the ‘top gun’. And Shashank emerged as the winner. Shashank had the habit of flying planes on his home computer and he said that made his task easy during the simulation trials. Buoyed up with this win, he says, after his engineering course get over, he would join “an Indian public sector undertaking which is engaged in aerospace activities”.
On Sunday, Shashank will co-pilot the Gripen — one of the contenders for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) — for an hour.
13/02/11 Hemanth CS/Daily News & Analysis

Is India flying back into Russia’s arms?

Bangalore: India and Russia have finalised the Russian PAKFA aircraft —a Sukhoi-T50 fighter aircraft — as the base design model for their $6 billion Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) programme. This has not just dealt a death-knell to any prospects of India joining the American F-35 fifth generation fighter programme, but also indicates the nature of things to come on India’s final selection of the $10 billion deal to procure 126 Medium weight Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCAs).
And it does not appear bright for the Americans who have come to Aero India 2011 with Boeing’s F/A 18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin’s F-16 IN Super Viper – seriously considered as the two of which one would finally clinch the costliest Indian defence deal till date, which, according to Air Chief PV Naik, would be signed by September this year.
Globally, defence experts and critics are reading too much into the absence of MiG-35 at Aero India 2011 from which it pulled out just a week ahead of the commencement of the event on February 9.
But the Russian delegations visiting Aero India 2011 in Bangalore have confirmed that though their contender for the MMRCA deal, MiG-35, was the only one from the six contenders to have pulled out from the air show, the MMRCA selection committee members as well as defence experts were witness to a series of demonstrations by MiG-35 which also carried out extreme manoeuvres in Indian as well as Russian conditions. Sources said the aerial manoeuvres demonstrated also involved “some which would not have been allowed to be carried out at any of the air shows” and that the Indian side were “thoroughly impressed”.
12/02/11 Nirad Mudur/Daily News & Analysis

Indian deal hot topic at record breaking AeroIndia

Bangalore: The eighth AeroIndia air show here has broken all records for the number of visitors, with over 1.75 lakh footfalls recorded till Friday.
The focus of attention remained on the biggest tender India has floated to buy 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).
The contract is expected to be awarded to one of the six contenders by September this year, according to officials.
“The MMRCA is the primary focus. With the orders likely soon, what will happen in the next edition in 2013, I wonder,” said Guy Douglas from BAE Systems India.
The increase in the number of aircraft manufacturers and air forces participating in the show this year indicates the increasing interest in AeroIndia, he added.
The first three days of the five-day air show, which opened Wednesday at the Yelahanka air base, were all about business.
But the show will be open for the general public to visit the flying and static display during Saturday and Sunday.
A large number of aviators and enthusiasts have gathered here to watch the spell-binding manoeuvres such as sharp turns, rolls and spins by fighter jets from all major global manufacturers, including US Lockheed Martin’s F-16s, Boeing’s F/A-18s, Saab’s Gripen and the Dassault’s Rafale.
These are part of the 95 military aircraft lined up in the static display area.
11/02/11 IANS/The Hindu

MMRCA deal: EADS ups ante

Bengaluru: Defence minister A K Antony has announced his intentions to stave off political pressure from countries in race for the $11.5 billion medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) contract, but one European consortium believes in flaunting its political connections along with technological superiority to clinch the deal.
The defence ministers of Germany and United Kingdom visited the pavilion of EADS at Aero India 2011 along with air force chiefs and diplomats, a move described by Yves Guillaume, Chief Executive Officer-EADS (India) as “show of unity” in support of Eurofighter Typhoon, one of the six contenders for the mega bucks acquisition. “We know it is always a combination of choice of technology and political decisions that guide such purchases, not only for Eurofighter but others”, he told Deccan Chronicle.
11/02/11 Deccan Chronicle

Dogfight over $10b fighter deal

It’s the biggest fighter jet import order in a long time, and for a long time. It’s the deal the world’s great military-industrial powers have been waiting to clinch — the Indian Air Force’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) purchase that could fetch the deal winner over $ 10 billion. And with Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik saying he expected India to have signed off on the deal by September, the dogfight between the contenders is intensifying.
Signs of that intensification were more than apparent during the Aero India show at the Yelahanka Air Force Station on Thursday, with some of the contenders — Lockheed Martin (F-16IN), Boeing (F/A-18), EADS (Eurofighter Typhoon), the French Dassault (Rafale), SAAB (Gripen) — making light or dismissing outright competitors.
Officials of the European contenders mocked Lockheed Martin’s apparently recent bid to let the F-35 Fifth Generation fighter among the contending Fourth Generation fighters, saying that it was a sign of the F-16IN losing altitude in the contest.
Lockheed Martin officials, in turn, seemed to be dismissing fellow US giant Boeing’s bid to win the contract for its F/A-18 Super Hornet by dangling a ‘roadmap of future development’ of the aircraft that would give it Fifth Generation characteristics and keep the jet relevant for the next several decades.
Asked about concerns over America’s willingness to transfer technology, Mr. Prins said, “The IAF’s request for proposal stipulated technology transfer in five categories in four phases. Our proposal is fully compliant.
11/02/11 Deccan Chroniclehte

Decision on $10.4 bn combat jet order likely by September

Bangalore: India would take a decision on a $10.4 billion order for 126 combat jets by mid-2011 or latest by September, a top commander said Wednesday.
Releasing the AeroIndia special edition of India Strategic defence magazine (www.indiastrategic.in) on the opening day of the international air show here, the Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, said that the evaluation process of the six aircraft in contention was proceeding satisfactorily and that he expected the decision by the middle of this year, or latest by August or September.
The IAF had completed the technical trials and submitted the report on time, and the process of evaluating the Transfer of Technology, Offsets and pricing aspects was moving forward in the defence ministry appropriately, and he expected commercial negotiations also to begin very soon.
09/02/11 IANS/Sify