Boeing wants to sell and
build the twin-engine F/A-18E/F Super Hornet --- the US Navy's frontline
fighter
Ajai Shukla | New Delhi November 03, 2016 Last
Updated at 20:52 IST
The
Indian Air Force (IAF) has already approached major global fighter vendors,
inviting them to build single-engine, medium fighters in India.
Now
the spotlight is expanding to encompass heavier, twin-engine fighters as well.
On
Thursday, Pratyush Kumar, President of Boeing India revealed that he expected a second inquiry from
the IAF, asking international manufactures for interest in building twin-engine
fighters in the country.
Along
with other vendors, Boeing had received the earlier inquiry for single-engine
fighters. With nothing to offer in that category, Boeing wants to sell and build the twin-engine F/A-18E/F Super Hornet --- the US Navy’s frontline fighter.
Boeing had offered the Super Hornet in response to India’s 2007 tender for 126 medium
multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), but lost out to the twin-engine Rafale
fighter, fielded by French aerospace vendor, Dassault.
Even
so, with New Delhi having procured just 36 Rafale fighters, Boeing assesses that, even after buying single-engine
fighters, the IAF will face a major shortfall of twin-engine fighters.
Said
Kumar to journalists in New Delhi today: “There is a gap of about 200 fighter
aircraft that the Super Hornet can fill, including the naval requirement.
This is the assessment of Boeing.”
Like
the Rafale, the Super Hornet can operate from land-based airfields, and
also aircraft carriers. The US military only uses it off aircraft carriers, but
other air forces, such as the Royal Australian Air Force, operate the Super Hornet off land bases.
Boeing has already submitted a plan through the US-India
Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), a government-industry
coordinating body, to build the Super Hornet in India.
Unlike
“other companies” that are offering to shift existing lines, says a politely
dismissive Kumar, in a thinly disguised swipe at Lockheed Martin, Boeing would establish “a brand new, state-of-the-art
factory of the future.”
Boeing’s
global arch-rival, Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defence corporation (Boeing is the second-largest), has offered to shift its older
F-16 line from Fort Worth, Texas to build the single-engine fighter in India.
The
F-16 faces competition in the single-engine category from the Gripen E, which
Swedish company Saab has offered to build in India. Saab has sweetened its
proposal with an offer to assist the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) with
completing an improved version of the indigenous Tejas light fighter, called
the Tejas 1A.
Boeing’s
competition in the twin-engine fighter segment comes from Dassault and
Eurofighter. Usually well-informed sources say Dassault, buoyed by its sale of
36 ready-built Rafale fighters to the IAF, is readying a proposal to build a
significantly larger number in India.
Boeing,
unlike other fighter manufacturers, leverages its military business in India
with a major non-military presence in the world’s fastest-growing market for
airliners.
Kumar
argues that Boeing’s dual presence --- in civilian and defence aerospace ---
creates a compelling business case for establishing manufacturing facilities in
India. “Manufacturing volumes are needed to create a business case for
manufacturing in another country. In defence, volumes are initially limited. So
it is a great advantage when commercially viable volumes come from defence and
civilian business combined”, he explains.
Boeing is readying to generate those volumes. In June,
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar inaugurated a new manufacturing facility in
Hyderabad, where 300 employees will build fuselages for Boeing’s Apache AH-64E
attack helicopter, which India has contracted to buy.
The
facility, which will become the world’s sole source for Apache fuselages, is
owned by a joint venture between Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd, called Tata Boeing Aerospace Ltd (TBAL). Kumar says the facility will
commence production in mid-2017 and the first fuselages will roll out in 2018.
In
similar fashion, the current Super Hornet line in St Louis, Missouri, USA would
eventually shut down, leaving only the Indian line to fill global orders for
new aircraft and spares.
Original
post: business-standard.com
If
India buys the F-18E/F it won’t make any sense as the Su-30MKI is better and
much cheaper.
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