India has decided to invite Australia to the international naval exercise Malabar
Nepal has banned all private Indian television news channels
Boeing completes delivery of 22 Apache and 15 Chinook helicopters to India
U.S. clears a USD 23 billion sale of F-35 fighter aircraft to Japan
Saab’s Mats Palmberg gives the details about their INAC/Indian Aircraft Company proposal that is part of their offer of the Gripen to India.
The F-15EX is neither a ‘navy fighter’ nor a renamed F-16 and the IAF is curious about it. That’s why the Rafale might finally have a formidable challenger, if India can get past the fact that it’s American.
The IAF’s new contest for fighter aircraft is expected to get underway over the next few months. But there remain a number of significant outstanding problems ahead, that could delay or derail the process.
Part III of this analysis examines the implications of the single most interesting data point to emerge from the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. This date has never been mentioned in earlier media reports, and what is almost startlingly significant is not only what transpired on this date, but the fact of the date, itself.
Part II of this analysis examines how the defence ministry’s Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) interpreted an inflated cost analysis of the Eurofighter bid and undervalued the cost of the Rafale bid, five times.
Part I of this three-part analysis is a contextual reading of the February 2019 CAG report and outlines how the IAF’s MMRCA contest was fixed to get the Rafale back into the contest after it was rejected, three times, and how the threats to a Rafale win were removed.
The airshow has 403 exhibitors participating in this edition of which 165 are international exhibitors. 63 aircraft will be present at the show, either on static display or for flight demonstrations.
Wing Commander Sahil Gandhi, who had been with SKAT since the team was re-formed in 2016 with the induction of the Hawk aircraft, went down in his aircraft after it collided with another SKAT Hawk aircraft.
Earlier this month, Boeing held the transfer ceremony at its Philadelphia facility where the newly-arrived Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Harsh Shringla accepted the aircraft, which is part of a USD 3 billion order that also includes 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters.
This dismissal by the court also has several errors and in one instance, restricts the exercise of its own jurisdiction, which is likely to have implications for future cases that could pertain to defence or national security.
One representative of an MMRCA 2.0 competitor said, “The process is so elaborate, difficult and expensive. If you’re permitting cheating, at least have the decency to not make the rest of us work so hard.” “Just the thought of it being tailored to one of the contestant would discredit the whole idea of a competitive bidding process,” said another.
The most substantial challenge in the formulation of the RFP for 110 fighter aircraft is the incorporation of the industrial cooperation program under Chapter 07 of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), something that has never actually been implemented in any form before.
Even after two decades since the acquisition case, the Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) search has seen a system absent from trials and failing trials, being passed as technically compliant and ending up as, apparently, the cheapest. Also problematic is the difficulty its purchase could pose by provoking U.S. sanctions under their CAATSA.
The proposed transfer of F-16 wing production from Israel to India is not contingent on an order from the Indian Air Force (IAF) according to Lockheed Martin.
