Saab, a Swedish aerospace and defence company that had partnered with Adani Group to produce the Gripen E fighter in India, announced on Monday that it was abandoning that arrangement.
“We have decided not to pursue the arrangement with the Adanis,” said Mats Palmberg, Chairman and Managing Director of Saab India, at a media interaction in New Delhi on Monday.
Saab and Adani Group confirmed their collaboration on August 31, 2017. If Saab were chosen as the foreign partner to supply the Gripen E fighter, the two parties’ agreement would take effect.
Seven major aerospace companies from across the world are competing in the procurement of 114 medium multirole fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force, which is projected to be worth between Rs 600 crore-Rs 700 crores. Saab is one of them.
Besides Saab, these include Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (US), Lockheed Martin’s F-21 (US), Dassault’s Rafale (France), the Eurofighter Typhoon (Europe), and the MiG-35 and Sukhoi-35 (Russian) fighters.
Asked who Saab would partner with for building the Gripen E in India, Palmberg said, “provided the defence ministry allowed Saab to hold 74 per cent of the manufacturing entity — which was permitted under the foreign direct investment cap on defence and aerospace manufacture — it would opt to manufacture the fighters in a company in which Saab owned 74 per cent.”
The defence ministry has reportedly asked for information and is assessing the original equipment makers’ responses. Next, the ministry will draft an admission of necessity before releasing a request for proposals.
Saab was the first of the foreign vendors to enter the anticipatedly competitive procurement by providing a thorough media briefing on the Gripen E fighter’s performance characteristics on Monday. The aerospace industry anticipates that this will be a highly competitive acquisition.
The termination of a previous fighter tender, issued in 2007 for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft, made this fighter acquisition necessary. 36 Rafale fighters were eventually purchased from Dassault on a government-to-government basis. The IAF was now severely short on fighter aircraft, forcing the IAF to issue a new procurement for 114 medium fighters.
Saab highlighted Gripen E’s use of cutting-edge networking technology in its briefing. Saab asserts that its aircraft delivers maximum operating availability with the least amount of logistical support thanks to its new, more potent General Electric F-414 engine.
However, the IAF will have the last say over the performance of the seven fighters after a series of flight tests.
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