In a big boost for the Make in India campaign, Sweden’s Saab will tie up with Adani Group to bid for a contract to make fighter aircrafts in India.
The partnership will compete with US defence giant Lockheed Martin in a two horse-race to equip the Indian military with single-engine jets to be produced locally under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make-in-India” initiative.
At the briefing to announce the tie-up, Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Group said, “Today India spends billions of dollars in exporting defence weapons and equipment. We are keen to play an instrumental role in making India a place for high-class defence manufacturing. This is in line with PM Modi’s Make in India vision.” “Gripen will be offered to the Indian government under the strategic partnership model,” he said.
Last year, Saab rolled out its latest iteration of the Gripen aircraft – the Gripen E. Gripen E has weapons like guided glide bombs, long-range and agile air-to-air missiles and heavy anti-ship armaments. Additionally, the aircraft has an inherent precision strike and stand-off capability, says Saab. Gripen E is equipped with a highly integrated and sophisticated sensor suite including an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, Infra Red Search and Track (IRST), Electronic Warfare (EW) suite and datalink technology, which, when combined gives the pilot, and co-operating forces exactly the information needed at all times, claims Saab.
Under the country’s new defence partnership policy, a foreign aircraft maker will collaborate with an Indian firm to develop a world-class indigenous aeronautical base that India has struggled to build for decades.
Lockheed has already picked India’s Tata Advanced Systems as its local partner to produce its F-16 fighter planes that will compete with Saab’s Gripen aircraft.
The government will issue a formal request to Lockheed and Saab over the next few days to provide information about their plans to design, develop and produce combat jets in India, a government official told earlier this week.
India’s air force needs hundreds of aircraft to replace its Soviet-era fleet, but Modi wants the planes built in India to help boost the domestic industrial base and cut imports.
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