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Follow on Google News | India’s Quest for Indigenous Transport Aircraft for the Indian AirforceRFP for the procurement of 56 transport aircraft to replace the aging 30 Avro 748Ms in Indian Air Force’s issued
By: IMR June 2013 Issue The story recaps India’s early endeavours to manufacture the transport aircrafts within the country and Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) becoming the nodal agency to do so. The story discusses why the IAF is now attempting to now wean away from HAL and launch an indigenous private defence manufacturing capability and the snags there in. On May 24, 2013 the Ministry of Defence (MoD) took a historical step when it issued a request for proposal (RFP) for the procurement of 56 transport aircraft to replace the Indian Air Force’s aging fleet of around 30 Avro 748Ms still in service. The last date for submission of bids is October 8, 2013. In a bid to launch an indigenous private defence manufacturing capability, for first time the RFP stated that the Indian Production Agency (IPA) would be a private company. The RFP for the five-ton and above, 50-seater transport aircraft with a rear ramp has been released to eight original equipment manufacturers (OEM) viz., Airbus Military, Alenia, Antonov, Boeing, Embraer, Lockheed Martin, Rosboronexport and Saab. It excludes HAL which till now held a monopoly in defence programmes and had indigenously produced trainers (HT-2, HPT-32, Kiran and Sitara Intermediate Jet Trainer), fighters (HF-24 and the LCA) and a number of helicopters (Chetak, Cheetah and Dhruv) and Avro HS-748. The IAF wanted to wean itself away from its sole supplier for all its needs as it had its reservations with the HAL programmes because of serious time and cost overruns and issues relating to quality control as well as customer support. India’s quest for indigenous aircraft is genuine and economically and strategically essential and vital. A question arises - where should the aircraft, for which the Ministry of Defence has issued requests for proposal, be manufactured. There are two problems. Firstly, the numbers are small and it will certainly not be viable to undertake assembly of just 16 aircraft and progressive manufacture of another 24 aircraft. The IPA will need to set up the assembly line, supply manpower, jigs and fixtures, paint and testing. These are long-term investments and a company for just these numbers of aircraft would not be economically viable. Hence, some long-term plans need to be drawn up. Secondly, would the foreign OEM be willing to invest in a company in which only 26% FDI is permitted? On both these counts, the project is a non-starter. Next few years are vital for Indian aircraft industry. The opportunities are tremendous and the Government, as well as the private sector, need to exploit these to the maximum to crate win-win situation for all. End
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