via Business Standard.
Indian Air Force (IAF) chief N.A.K Sunday left for the US on a four-day visit, during which he will hold talks on boosting defence cooperation between the two countries.Hmm.
According to an official release, Air Chief Marshal Browne is visiting the US on an invitation of his US counterpart, General Mark A. Welsh III.
Air Chief Marshal Browne, who is also chairman, chiefs of staff committee, would be accepting the delivery of the second C-17 Globemaster III during the visit. The aircraft is scheduled to be delivered to the IAF July 22 at a ceremony at Boeing's Long Beach final assembly facility.
The IAF chief is scheduled to hold talks with senior military leadership of the US, including Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin E.Dempsey and Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Herbert J. "Hawk" Carlisle.
"He is likely to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues on the ongoing defence cooperation between the two countries towards strengthening the growing US-India security and defence relationship," the release said.
The IAF chief will also visit the US Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Maryland, and US Space Command located at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.
The release said that Air Chief Marshal Browne is visiting the US after 26 years. He graduated from Air Command and Staff College, Alabama, in 1987.
I'm going to have to update my news alerts. It took a reader to alert me to his presence in the US (Big thanks to you...whoever you are). Quite honestly I took news of the Indian Air Force receiving another C-17 as not really big news but the talks with our Chairman puts this in a different light.
The rush is on to bring India into our camp.
I don't think they'll bite, they value their independence too much, but I'm betting a full court press is being applied.
Side Note: I also bet he's getting a classified brief on the F-35 and its capabilities. If India was smart it would buy a couple just so it could war game it against its other fighters. Think about it. The Indians are being offered the F-35, are funding the PAK-FA, are supposedly buying the Rafale and they already have the SU-30 in service. They could theoretically have under their roof two of the four stealth aircraft in production. If for no other purpose than to wring as many secrets out of the lot and to develop tactics to defeat them it would be a worthwhile buy.
I think if they were to try to go with the F-35 there would be a LOT of strings attached. Also, it's sounding like PAK-FA has hit the skids. (Costs ballooning and delays.) The F-35 is largely past that and is coming down the learning curve.
ReplyDeleteThey already rejected the F-35 in no uncertain terms, so the F-35 Pak-fa combo isn't happening. Their Pak Fas are delayed now too.
DeleteThe thing you forget about India's defense establishment is that they have neither the political will nor the technical capability (within the entrenched Govt owned HAL) to copy anything as advanced as the F-35. The reason the MMRCA deal for the Rafale has stalled is because Dassault is completely unconvinced that HAL is capable of holding up its end of the deal for final assembly of 108 of the 126 birds. Unlike China, India simply has never shown any propensity to copy...its much more lucrative for the politicians and bureaucrats to do direct import deals which come with tasty bribes...
ReplyDeleteThanks admin, you kept ur promise :) ...It means still no words on 22 Apache and 15 Chinooks...well now I also think that its not gonna happen before General elections in India!
ReplyDeletei wouldn't be so sure. our Vice President was just in India and now this? something big is brewing.
Deleteadditionally for the guy that thinks that India's defense establishment isn't up to the challenge let me just point to the C-17 purchase. that was quick, clean and no problem. additionally the old procurement issues are being cleaned up and we can point to our frenemies China for this. for the very first time India is facing a mortal threat. Pakistan is loud but they know and so does everyone else that they can't handle India. additionally China is making land grabs and the entire country is aware of the threat.
proper motivation can cause miracles to happen. i think we're seeing one in India. you just have to know where to look.
It will happen. The Apaches are for the IAF. Now the Indian Army wants more Apache's for their new Mountain Corps.
Deletehttp://www.defensenews.com/article/20130724/DEFREG03/307240013/Source-India-Considers-Buying-More-Boeing-Apaches
I think the Pak-Fa negotiations are going slower because it is more expensive than they expected. But if the IAF is keeping an eye on the PLAAF stealth fighter prototypes and can appreciate the Pak-Fa.
Agree...IAF is very impressed by the timing of delivery of Super Hercules and C-17 & me too!
ReplyDeleteSolomon,
ReplyDeleteGeneral Odierno is also visiting India right now...
The reason the MMRCA deal for the Rafale has stalled is because Dassault wants to back out of its workshare commitments. It has absolutely nothing to do with how convinced or unconvinced they are about HAL's technical competence and capability to hold up its end of the deal.
ReplyDeleteDassault knew HAL would be the Indian manufacturer of the Rafale since day one of the MMRCA competition. So why are all these supposed concerns surfacing now? Its because Dassault understated the Rafale's price in order to win the MMRCA contract and as a result find themselves in a financially tight spot in the commercial negotiations. So now they want to increase their workshare in an underhanded manner by changing the Indian manufacturer of the Rafale to someone of their own choosing. Dassault might have fooled people had they not chosen an Indian partner who has absolutely no experience of any kind of manufacturing much less aerospace manufacturing.
Yes that's right - Dassault would have us believe that HAL is not capable of manufacturing the Rafale but someone else who has zero manufacturing experience is perfectly capable of doing so.
As far as copying or reverse engineering is concerned, the main reason India has not indulged in rampant intellectual property theft is to avoid needlessly antagonizing friendly foreign governments.
ReplyDeleteTo give one example: Short of nuclear weapons and long range ballistic missiles, India has had access to almost everything that Russia possesses. China has never enjoyed India's level of access to Russian military technology no matter how dire Russia's economic situation was or how much cash China was prepared to pay.
Yes, a lot of this had to do with Russia's view of China as a potential military threat but do not underestimate the impact of India's respect of Russian intellectual property in this as well.