$11 bn defence deals lined up for Prez visits

NEW DELHI: There is nothing like mega arms deals to sweeten presidential visits. With Obama, Sarkozy and Medvedev slated to come here in November-December , India is fast-tracking major defence contracts with US, France and Russia.

The high-profile visits will, of course,see bilateral talks and agreements on a host of nonmilitary issues. But with India being one of the world’s largest importers of military hardware and software—it has inked contracts worth over $50 billion since the 1999 Kargil conflictvisits here are often used to push defence deals to serve larger geo-strategic interests.

While France will get the over $2.1 billion Mirage-2000 upgrade contract, India is likely to shell out $6 billion for the Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA fighter aircraft (FGFA) project.
Superior to US Raptor, Sukhoi PAK-FA to fit IAF needs

New Delhi: Besides France and Russia , India is on course to finalize its biggest-ever defence contract with the US for 10 C-17 Globemaster-III giant strategic airlift aircraft, which will come for upwards of $3 billion, under the American Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme. “The Mirage and FGFA contracts will probably be inked during the visits of Sarkozy and Medvedev in December. The C-17 negotiations, however , might not be concluded by the time Obama comes visiting in early-November ,” said a senior official.

India and France have been negotiating the upgrade of 56 Mirage-2000 s, which were first inducted into the IAF combat fleet in the mid-1980 s, for over three years now. But the bone of contention till now was the upgrade price being demanded by French companies Dassault Aviation (aircraft manufacturer ), Thales (weapons systems integrator ) and MBDA (missile supplier ), which was around 30% more than what India was ready to pay. "But the project has been finalized now, with only a few contractual issues left to be ironed out,'' said another official. Similarly, New Delhi and Moscow have for long been negotiating the detailed commercial and design contract for the FGFA, with India keen on inducting 250 of these fighters from cash-strapped Russia from 2017-2018 onwards, as reported by TOI earlier.

Billed as superior to the American F/A-22 ‘Raptor’ , the world’s only operational FGFA as of now, the Sukhoi PAK-FA for India will now be tailored to the IAF's requirements, with Hindustan Aeronautics as a codeveloper . “Our FGFA will be much cheaper than Raptor or the F-35 (being developed jointly by the US, UK and seven other countries). Phase-I of the FGFA contract with Russia has been finalised, which will now go to the CCS for approval. Later, Phase-II will be finalized,” the official said. The US, on its part, is now cornering a major chunk of the Indian defence market . After the $2.1 billion for eight P-8 I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft inked in 2009, all eyes are now on the C-17 contract. India, in fact, may even go for another six C-17 s after the first 10.