Gerwert said: “We are now looking forward to further detailing our offer with the Indian governmental bodies as well as the Indian industry representatives and are prepared for all subsequent discussions.” Gerwert continued: “Earlier this year we invited India to become a member of the successful Eurofighter family. Today I want to repeat this message: India is our partner of choice and we are interested in long-lasting and mutually beneficial political, industrial and military relations, which are based on our dedication for equal, fair and true partnership.”
EADS, as the Eurofighter Lead Company for India, fully understands the importance of industrial co-operation associated with defence acquisition programmes. “This is particulary true when it comes to very large acquisition cases, where the industrial collaboration can decisively contribute to further shaping the future and bright perspective of the Indian defence industry”, said Gerwert. The Eurofighter Family, the world’s largest industrial defence conglomerate with approximatively 400 leading companies associated with the programme, has the power and the willingness to completely support the Indian defence sector over the decades to come.
The EADS vision for the MMRCA (Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft) programme is to solidly and pragmatically bring the capabilities, skills and technologies to the Indian industry, from Defence Public Sector Undertakings, private large corporations to small and medium industries and enterprises. EADS and their Eurofighter partners have already signed more than 20 MoUs with key Indian defence companies. Four nations, four air forces and the four leading European aerospace companies EADS, EADS Casa, BAE Systems and Alenia Finmeccanica have joined forces to fully support all military, technological and industrial aspects of the Eurofighter campaign in India.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is fully operational in five European air forces, i.e., the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe, and the air forces of Italy, Spain, and Austria. With more than 700 orders from six customers (Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Austria, Saudi Arabia), the Eurofighter Typhoon is a mature and stable combat aircraft programme. The most impressive key feature of the Eurofighter Typhoon is its multi- and swing-role capability, which provides military leaders with enormous operational flexibility. This means that the aircraft can fly either air-to-air or air-to-ground missions or both sorties at the same time. In terms of weapons payload, the aircraft is capable of carrying a mix of six short-range and beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles plus additional air-to-surface weapons such as Paveway II or GBU-10/-16, an internal 27mm cannon, or external fuel tanks, a Laser target designator pod or other stores on seven further hard points. Another operational benefit is the installation of the electronic warfare equipment in the wing tips without sacrificing external stores capacity.
Thanks to these unmatched air-to-ground and air-to-air capabilities, the Eurofighter Typhoon has proven itself as an awesome operational weapon system which combines advanced technology with world-class performance. The network-centric capable combat aircraft provides highest levels of mission effectiveness for all scenarios and a broad range of mission flexibility. A powerful active and passive sensor suite, Direct-Voice Input, and an advanced human-machine interface reduces the pilots’ workload and is the yardstick for other combat aircraft either fielded or in development. In addition, its air-to-air refuelling capability extends mission duration and range. Therefore, the Eurofighter Typhoon is indeed outstanding regarding its agility, capability, flexibility and affordabilty over the entire service life to meet the challenges of fast-changing operational scenarios now and for the decades to come.
Again press release..
If the offsets are to be submitted is clear in the RFP, then they all will have to and they all will, wont they?
shiv sir,
came across the news that snecma is going to help GTRE in kaveri project. How does it going to effect the MRCA competition.
I will tell you how.. Snecmas changes to Kaveri’s core will take 5-6 years per their own estimate. They are planning to put the M88’s core after modifications.
5-6 years (when govt went for NPO and Snecma, 48 months was the set deadline)!! thats 2 years since the first MMRCA crafts are “delivered”. M88, by then will improve much better than Kaveri (even todays latest batches are much better). Our air-staff-requirement will come in and do a last rights for Kaveri.
MMRCA deal is like a credit card – giving a false sense of surplus. Everyone trying to co-operate/co-develop. But as any credit card, firstly you hit a limit, secondly – more important, you have to pay the dues.
5 years can be made 15 in Rafale is not selected.
Best way to escape this is to fork the program. DRDO working on an independent implementation of K10 and the other, a JV with snecma.
Dont forget is Snecma is going to charge us a bulky amount for all the “help”..
EADS owns stakes in both the Eurofighter GmbH(EADS germany-spain) which manufactures the Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Aviation (EADS France)which manufactures the rafale. rafale fighter was a result of the french disagreement on the eurofighter.
its interesting to see that EADS a company which was made to counter the american military dominance is working independently for different countries , which surely means it is owned by people(respective governments) who want to make money.
and then the typhoon was on serious development since mid-1970,
and also there was a gap of 10 years between its first flight and actual induction, (one of the major cause was disagreement between partner countries on different issues)…. a sure reason for us to support our domestic LCA programme which can still be developed in to a good aircraft in various phases, it would take some patience on the part of the IAF, and it should be ready to take delivery of some aircrafts even if it doesnt fullfill air staff requirements as it would boost the development of the aircraft and would be an incentive for the HAL to work on an more advance aircraft.
The IAF cheif has stated that trials would begin next january which would decide which aircraft would win the India MMRCA bid.The IAF is keen on the AESA radars where the Americans lead the pack but EADS, SAAB and Thales are not far behind.I would like to know about S.Aroor’s comments on the right aircraft which could be selected.If the Centre increases the allocation for the contract to include a heavy twin engined fighter whether the Eurofighter has a chance secondly,does he beleive that Gripen would be hard to beat and could even edge out the F-16IN ?
The American offerings though proven could be political blackholes unless Lockheed promises source codes for the aircraft along with ToT for F-16’s engines even the fire power has to be bought from them tech transfers is what would bother the Yanks. It would be more sensible not to consider Rafale and Mig-35for reasons best known to SA .IAF should go for either the Gripen NG or the Eurofighter Tranche3.Since it would be easy to integrate the EJ200 into the Gripen though the IAF would prefer the GE 414.here also US laws would be a inhibiting factor.Swedes are ready to concede everything even the Source codes so that the BVR Astra can be integrated with the aircraft.