Fighter jets

Bomb bays to Delhi

India favours France’s Dassault

Feb 4th 2012 | PARIS| from the print edition

“WE’VE been waiting for this day for 30 years,” said Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, on the news this week that India had gone into exclusive negotiations with Dassault Aviation, a French firm, to buy 126 of its Rafale warplanes for $15 billion-20 billion. France has not sold a single Rafale overseas, and until this week the plane’s future looked iffy. Shares in Dassault Aviation soared by 18.5%.

The loser, ironically, was the Rafale’s cousin, the Eurofighter Typhoon, built by a consortium led by EADS, Europe’s defence and aerospace champion, which is jointly controlled by Germany and France. EADS itself owns a 46% stake in Dassault, a legacy of earlier French government meddling, so its own shares inched up on the news.

Dassault won its exclusive-bidder status by offering the lower price. Both European jets had satisfied the technical requirements of the Indian Air Force, which wants zippier planes to guard against China’s Chengdu J-10 combat aircraft and Pakistan’s ageing American F-16s. In tests over the Himalayas and the Rajasthan desert, India had eliminated the F-16 and F/A-18, the Russian MiG-35 and Swedish JAS 39 Gripen from the process during 2009-10.

The capabilities of both the Rafale and the Eurofighter were on display during the Libyan war. The Typhoon is the superior air-to-air interceptor. The Rafale switches more easily into a ground-attack mode.

After seeing the Rafale rejected repeatedly over the past decade, by the Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland, the French were desperate to win a contract. The plane was becoming a costly embarrassment, especially for Mr Sarkozy, who has long promised a sale to Brazil but has nothing to show for his efforts. Some even wondered if the Rafale could survive with France as its only customer.

Now Dassault must seal the contract with India in a series of detailed negotiations over technology transfer and other conditions. India is known for switching to other bidders before finally signing a contract. “The Indians will now squeeze the French hard,” says an executive on the Typhoon side. That said, India has used Dassault’s Mirage jets for many years, and last year signed a $2.4 billion deal with Dassault, Thales and MBDA, two other French defence firms, to upgrade its French planes.

For the Eurofighter consortium the Indian deal is crucial too. David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, said this week that the Typhoon is “far better” than the Rafale. Sales of the Typhoon, which went into service in 2004, have disappointed. The Eurofighter member governments (Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain) have all ordered planes, but only Austria and Saudi Arabia have bought them from outside the group.

Eurofighter may now lower its price to rejoin the bidding for India’s contract. It may also offer India the carrot of equal status as a partner in the programme, alongside the four European nations. Eurofighter says it will be helped by what is turning out to be a transparent procurement process. Whereas previous Indian arms deals have been dogged by accusations of corruption, this one has so far been exemplary, says an executive involved.

Having opted out of the Eurofighter project in 1985, France’s determination to go it alone in defence matters has led to the spectacle of two expensive European combat planes competing for the same big contract. “Europe should not have two jets fighting each other,” says Zafar Khan, a defence-industry analyst at Société Générale, a French bank. The next generation of European fighter jets, he says, should be a more co-ordinated effort.

from the print edition | Business

Bomb bays to Delhi

Feb 9th 2012, 13:33

These days, although many countries face the financial difficulties, the weapon business is so busy that there seems to exist some special strategies.

Last December, Japan’s Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa announced a decision to chooses F-35 stealth jet as next Air Self-Defense Force fighter jet rather than US-made F/A-18 and the Eurofighter. Besides, India not only showed Agni-4, new type of domestically-developed ballistic missile, to public but also bought 126 French-made aircraft as its next mainstay fighter jets in a deal worth more than 10 billion dollars.The Rafale fighters are mainly to replace an aging fleet of MiG-21 jets obtained from Russia.

Basically, these Rafale fighters’ mimic enemies are China’s Chengdu J-10 combat aircraft and Pakistan’s ageing American F-16s. But last year Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) showed the abilities of next-generation jet when American Robert Gates visited Xi Jing-ping, China’s next president and defense minister Liang Guan-lie. This jet disclosed the constant development of PLA’s air force. The jet in China’s existing air force is better than F/A-18 (almost equal to F-22) for quality but still hard to compete with the possibly largely-product F-35. China’s strategy is inclined to choose the way of quantity concerned. India’s prime minister Manmohann Singh, this old and strange elephant, appears to be No.1 air force, not satisfying the holding strong F-16 and F/A-18, the Russian MiG-35 and Swedish JAS 39 Gripen from the process during 2009-10. After just short time, this elephant wants to have more.

Needless to say, these business, by and large, infer the competitive enclosure of China. These kinds of balancing game are increasing enough to let almost of Asia be aware of whether the new cold war is coming. China and U.S. talks while both conflicts with each other from financial issue to military. On next Tuesday, or say Valentine’s Day, American president Barack Obama and China’s next president Xi Jin-ping will have a banquet in White House. Last time, China’s incumbent Hu Jing-tao sprayed the gross Renminbi onto the peaceful Boeing Jet in United States. This time, China and U.S. still talk of the financial business, but too many military deals are rounding both ears. Both may not originally cause these deals, which inevitably are taken into consideration in next week’s talk, or date.

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