October 18, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Saab offers Gripen technology transfer to Indian partner
Bengaluru, Oct 17 (IANS) Swedish aerospace major Saab on Thursday offered technology transfer to its Indian partner for making its fighter Gripen if it wins the Indian Air Force (IAF) order to supply 114 jets.
"We will transfer technology to our Indian partner for making Gripen in India if we win the IAF order," Saab India Technologies Managing Director Ola Rignell told reporters here.
Technology transfer will also enable Saab to make India its production base for exporting aerospace components to countries where it has operations or customers, he said.
Saab is in fray for the multi-billion-dollar global tender to make in India 110 advanced medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) with five other global aerospace majors Dassault (Rafale), Eurofighter (Typhoon), Boeing (F-18A), Lockheed Martin (F-21) and Russian Aircraft Corporation (MiG-35).
The decision to make 114 fighters indigenously was taken after India cancelled the global tender for supply 126 MMRCA in July 2015 and opted in 2016 to buy 36 Rafales from the French Dassault Aviation, which won the contract for an estimated $8.4 billion (Rs 59,000 crore) from the previous NDA government.
The tender, floated in April 2018, mandates the bidder to accept an Indian partner chosen by the Indian government.
"It is the Indian government''s prerogative to choose the strategic partner for making the fighters in India with the winner of the bid," Rignell said.
All the six firms submitted their bids in July 2018, responding to the government''s Request for Proposal (RFP) after Request for Information (RFI) in 2017.
Saab, however, decided to set up its India base in Bengaluru, which is also the country''s aerospace hub with the presence of the state-run defence major HAL and aircraft design and development organisations like ADA.
"We want Bengaluru to be the base to make Gripen for the IAF as the city has talent as well as resources," Rignell said.
Building an ecosystem and making investments is a part of the Swedish firm''s offer to be in contention for the fighter deal.
October 16, 2024 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
The contract concerns the development of the Gen 3 Radar Frequency Interferometer (RFI) / Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) APR-48B system for the U.S. Army’s Apache helicopter fleet.
May 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace
The US Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Cross-Functional Team (CFT) will continue flight trials in the fourth quarter of this year as it transitions into the next phase of its Air Launched Effects (ALE) programme, service officials have disclosed. The decision follows initial flights tests conducted at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, between February and March, during which the Area-I Altius 600 unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) were for the first time forward-launched at low altitudes in the hover position from UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters in support of the ALE concept. The Altius 600 UAS being launched from a UH-60 helicopter at low altitudes and in the hover position during a trial. Speaking to Janes from the FVL CFT's headquarters at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) Integration Lead and Plans/Requirements Officer Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Freude and Jeff McCoy, Product Lead for the Command, Control and Effects Product Office, PM Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) confirmed the forthcoming flight tests would be designated ‘Project Convergence'. Industry sources told Janes that flight tests were scheduled to be conducted in September. The ALE programme has been designed to enhance the army's ability to conduct multi-domain operations by using autonomous air vehicles as part of a wider FARA “eco-system”. Expected to penetrate enemy air-defence systems, air vehicles must be capable of creating “chaos in enemy decision spaces” to enable freedom of movement for friendly forces across a battlespace. Air vehicle mission sets have been divided by the CFT into detect, identify, locate, and report (DLIR); disrupt; decoy; and lethal categories. Mission sets will be enabled by a series of active and passive payloads that could “stimulate” and confuse enemy air-defence systems, service officials added. https://www.uasvision.com/2020/05/26/us-army-advances-air-launched-effects-programme/
July 15, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Les Etats-Unis ont annoncé le 9 juillet avoir approuvé la vente de 105 avions furtifs F-35 de Lockheed Martin au Japon, pour un montant estimé à 23,11 milliards de dollars, selon l'Agence de coopération pour la sécurité de la défense (DSCA). Dans le détail, il s'agit de 63 F-35A, la version traditionnelle de cet avion de combat destiné à l'armée de l'Air, et 42 F-35B, la version à décollage court et atterrissage vertical destinée aux porte-avions. La Tribune du 11 juillet 2020