The Hindu : National : Global manufacturers talk about their assets

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Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007
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Global manufacturers talk about their assets

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: With the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the fighter aircraft reaching them in real time, global manufacturers have promised to provide a low cost, highly versatile fighter that will complement the growing fleet of Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft.

The Swedish Saab/Gripen team said it was confident of submitting a fully compliant response to the Indian government based on the supply of the new generation fighter and supported by a long term programme of industrial co-operation and offset.

“Selecting the Gripen to equip its Air Force will provide India with the world’s most cost effective, new generation, multi-role combat aircraft in full operational service. Operating as a perfect force mix to complement the IAF’s Su-30 fleet, or in fully autonomous units, Gripen offers the highest sortie generation rates, flexibility of basing and combat lethality of any aircraft in the new generation class,” a company statement said.

“Intelligent design of software and hardware will ensure that Gripen maintains this combat supremacy, via planned technology insertion throughout decades of frontline service. The time is over for yesterday’s outmoded concepts in support, upgrading and rigid basing requirements. Gripen is the future of flexible, integrated and networked combat power and it’s available now.”

With the U.S. government receiving the RFP for the Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA), Lockheed Martin said the centrepiece of its response would be a specially tailored of the F-16 designed to meet all of India’s MRCA requirements at the lowest possible procurement and operating costs.

“We have been anticipating possible sets of requirements for the past several months and conceptualising potential aircraft configuration options. We will now analyse the actual requirements in detail and begin defining an F-16 aircraft and an industrial solution that will provide India with the best overall capability, operability and value for the MRCA program,” a company statement said.

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