5-day event : 550 companies to mark presence | Thrust on ‘Make in India’ campaign

Gearing up: Workers clean a Tejas at the Yelahanka airbase in Bengaluru on Monday. PTI

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 13

The 11th edition of Aero India — a military aerospace exhibition — will begin in Bengaluru tomorrow. It will have a thrust on “Make in India” campaign with global companies that are vying to set up fighter-jet producing factories in India will be in attendance.Over 550 defence companies, including 279 from the US, Russia, the UK, France, and Israel among others, will mark their presence at the five-day event (February 14 to February 18) at the Indian Air Force (IAF) base Yelahanka.New Delhi is looking for fighter jets for the Air Force and 57 jets for ship-deck operations of the Navy. It needs some 1,000 helicopters of various types and is looking for UAVs, besides a newer lot of transport planes. All these are to be made in India with foreign collaboration(s).The IAF needs single-engine fighter jets to replace the MiG-21 series. Saab-developed Gripen-E and Lockheed Martin produced F-16 fighters are in the fray. The Americans and the Swedes have promised to set up an assembly line, in case they are selected to build the single-engine fighters.For the Navy’s requirement of 57 jets, American company Boeing is pitching in with its F-A/18 super hornet that has land based and naval variant. The Rafale, of which the IAF is getting 36 jets, also has a ship-deck variant. Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on December 2 last year rejected the LCA-Navy variant, saying it did not have the power for ship-deck operations.The home-made light combat aircraft (LCA), Tejas, will be flying at the airshow. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s “HTT-40”, a basic trainer aircraft; the first indigenously upgraded Hawk Mk132 trainer and the light combat helicopter will also fly.  IAF’s Surya Kiran and Sarang units as well as by teams from Sweden and the UK will showcase their aerobatic skills.The US will be one of the biggest exhibitors and Russia will be equally big, a reality that was not imaginable when the Aero India started in 1996. India’s Cold War (1945-1991) military ally—Russia—may not be losing ground in terms of orders, but the “Make in India” thrust means India now has many suitors — notably France, Israel and Ukraine.  The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in its latest report on “Trends in international arms transfers for the period 2011-2015” predicted: “Based on existing orders and weapons, Russia will remain, by a significant distance, the main supplier of major arms to India for the foreseeable future.”After 2008, the US won military contracts worth $13 billion (approx Rs 85,000 crore). All those Cold-war years when India was in the Soviet Union bloc, the US did business worth only $500 million (approx Rs 3,000 crore at today’s value). As of today, projects worth $39 billion, including co-development of the next generation of fighter jets, are in the pipeline with Moscow.