Boeing Wants Washington To Clear F-15EX Pitch To India
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Tom M
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BREAKING: Boeing Wants Washington To Clear F-15EX Pitch To India
Shiv Aroor. Feb 12, 2020 2 47 pm
Confirming a thread that has long been speculated upon in Indian defence circles, Boeing today confirmed to FlightGlobal’s Asia Managing Editor Greg Waldron that the company was seeking clearance from the U.S. Government to make a formal offer of the F-15EX fighter to India. This would be for an upcoming contest in which India is looking to build at least 110 fighters in country as part of a ‘Make in India’ effort. Boeing’s F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet, a long-standing contender for Indian fighter requirements, has already been pitched by Boeing as part of the 110 jet contest.
The FlightGlobal piece quotes a Boeing executive as saying, “While awaiting further definition on the Indian air force’s requirements, we have requested a license for the F-15 so that we’re ready to share the full spectrum of potential solutions across our fighter portfolio when appropriate. We continue to offer the F/A-18 Super Hornet to both the Indian navy and Indian air force, and our F-15 is experiencing a resurgence in interest in the US and around the world.”
The Indian government is expected to detail next steps in the ambitious fighter buy-and-build project later this year. If Boeing receives clearance to add the F-15EX to the mix, the list of prospective contenders would swell to 8: apart from the two Boeing jets, the Indian government will also be considering the Rafale, Lockheed Martin F-21, Eurofighter Typhoon, Gripen E, MiG-35 and Su-35.
The F-15EX is the latest iteration of the highly successful Eagle program, with a raft of improvements.
Boeing’s tryst with the Indian fighter acquisition program began in the mid-2000s when the F/A-18 became a surprise entrant into the then M-MRCA (medium multirole combat aircraft) contest — an endeavour that spiralled into oblivion and finally saw the Indian government contract for a fraction of the intended 126 jets and settle for 36 French Rafales. The F/A-18 has hovered around India’s twisting and turning acquisition program, and now sees itself as a frontrunner for both the Indian Air Force’s 110 jet build program as well as the Indian Navy’s hunt for 57 new generation carrier deck fighters.
The F-15EX pitch is, in many ways, unsurprising. The F-15 program is currently headed by Pratyush Kumar, who took over the reins of the program after a very successful stint as Boeing’s country head in India. Under Kumar, Boeing scored a list of significant contracts for military aircraft, including the AH-64E Apache, CH-47F Chinook, C-17 and P-8I.
https://www.livefistdefence.com/202...ashington-to-clear-f-15ex-pitch-to-india.html
Stupid. Then what will we do with our fleet of Su-30 ??
salarsikander
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To dodge the Amraam of F15ExStupid. Then what will we do with our fleet of Su-30 ??
Whose F15EX is going to fire AMRAAM at us ?
salarsikander
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IAF New F15 EX will Fire AMRAAM at Su30 to make it more deadlier of All in Air Combat and make it undisputed Amraan dodger, also with 2 heavy weight Jets India can easily Lands its troop in F'Ghnaitsan
gambit
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The highlighted -- not true.
You are making a blanket statement that covers all types of semicon products. For semicon products that have frequent write operations, like NAND for one example, the smaller the nodes, the lower the endurance factor, and this is true. However, in certain applications where write operations are infrequent, smaller nodes in the sub-20s do not have any worse endurance than the higher nodes. Of course, what constitutes 'frequent' or 'infrequent' is open for interpretations, but all it take is an examination on how a particular semicon product is used in what application.
An AMRAAM can perform all of its operations in DRAM from launch. In this application, the smaller nodes are desirable because of higher capacity.
External temperatures as a threat? Nonsense. External temperature is a PACKAGING problem. Not a node issue. By packaging, I mean encapsulation of the die after extraction from the silicon wafer. Semicon products that are slated for extreme temperatures variations are diverted to specialized packaging processes. The encapsulation material will be different from commercial use in formula.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1136218
The final 'chip' or encapsulated die will be larger in overall dimensions than the 'chip' that goes into a smart refrigerator.
Russia simply sucks at semicon.
migflug
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F-15 offer could disrupt Indian fighter contest
Flight Global‘s Greg Waldron broke the news out of the Singapore Air Show 2020 last month of the U.S. Government considering an application for an export licence for its F-15 fighter aircraft to India.
Although there is a lot to unpack here in terms of implications (which we will get to in a minute), StratPost can confirm that an export policy approval has been granted in the form of an ITAR-waiver. ITAR stands for International Traffic in Arms Regulations that govern the control of arms exports by the United States. Separately, F-15 manufacturer Boeing also applied for a DSP-5 licence in the fourth quarter of 2019, which would allow them to market the aircraft to India. Both the ITAR-waiver and the DSP-5 licence allow the sharing of information that is not already in the public domain, for the purpose of marketing. According to the U.S. State Department, ‘The DSP-5 can include hardware, software, or documents and is the mechanism used to obtain a Marketing License for information that is not public domain’.
Finally, StratPost can confirm that representatives of the U.S. government and Boeing have already conducted early conversations on the aircraft with the Indian Air Force (IAF) on their request, under the ITAR-waiver.
The IAF’s interest in the F-15 has emerged from the U.S. Air Force order for an upgraded model of the fighter, the lessons from the air defence battle that followed the Balakote raid and tacit recognition of the distinction between the F-15 and other U.S. fighter aircraft that have been offered to India.
Currently…
As we know, the Indian Air Force has a contest gathering steam for the acquisition of 114 fighter aircraft. This contest came about after the IAF withdrew its earlier contest for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) and ended up placing an order for 36 Rafale fighters.
Eye-rollingly called MMRCA 2.0, it includes the Russian Sukhoi-35, a relative of the Sukhoi-30MKI currently in service in the IAF, in addition to the MMRCA 6 (Saab Gripen, Lockheed Martin F-21/F-16 Block 70, Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and MiG-35).
Separately, the IAF is ordering, or plans to order an additional 18 Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft, 21 MiG-29 fighters and 83 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk1A in addition to the earlier order of 40 LCA. There has also been talk of a second order for Rafale fighters further down the road.
Impact on Perception
A potential U.S. offer of the F-15, as a standalone pitch or part of MMRCA 2.0, could alter the balance of the contest, currently weighed in favour of the Rafale, as well as, calculations on other future acquisitions with the emergence of a uniquely new option.
The two U.S. fighters on offer, the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the ‘F-21’ have both struggled with some of the baggage they are perceived to carry in India.
The Lockheed Martin ‘F-21’ is the F-16 Block 70 renamed for the Indian market, for the rather obvious reason that older variants of the F-16 are operated by the Pakistan Air Force. The F/A-18 Super Hornet is still seen somewhat dismissively by IAF puritans as primarily a navy fighter, even though the aircraft is also in service in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and earlier models are in service in multiple air forces around the world.
These perception problems have worked to the advantage of the French.
Should the French be worried? They might have good reason, for the first time in a long time, if an American fighter is acceptable to Delhi.
The F-15 suffers from none of these difficulties.
MMRCA 2.0
The Indian Air Force, enamoured as it is with the French Rafale, has remained unchanged in its propensity to sniff at the other aircraft competing with it, for some reason or another.
The terms of the new contest are, so far, broad enough for the aircraft on offer to range from single-engine lighter fighters like the Saab Gripen and the Lockheed Martin F-21 to the no-bullshit-seriously-heavy Sukhoi-35. The Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, F/A-18 Super Hornet and MiG-35 fall somewhere between these two extremes, with the F-15 bringing up the far end, followed by the Sukhoi.
But the contrast in availability and capability at this far end is not easily dismissed, given it’s something that actually works out when you need a fighter to come for an air defence battle and not just an air show. This has become clear since Balakote, with semi-official statements lamenting, ‘Rafale hota toh aisa hota, Rafale hota toh waisa hota‘.
The forthcoming RFP (Request For Proposal) could narrow this weight and performance spectrum if the IAF decides to display clarity of intention about exactly what they want.
But could the F-15 sway the IAF from its preference for the Rafale, given the IAF has had its heart set on the French fighter (really, any fighter as long as it was French)?
It’s not Russian, it’s not a ‘navy fighter’ and it’s not a renamed F-16. It’s certainly not the Gripen and even though the Eurofighter Typhoon was the Carl Lewis of the first MMRCA race, Airbus has not displayed any enthusiasm in chasing this particular IAF order. All the competing manufacturers are painfully aware the Rafale is the aircraft to beat, already having been ordered by the IAF.
U.S. Air Force F-15EX Order
Part of the reason for the IAF’s interest in the F-15 is the U.S. Air Force commitment to the latest model, the F-15EX, solidified recently with an intention to order the first eight aircraft and plans to buy a total of 144 aircraft.
It has evolved a multi-role capability on top of its air-superiority pedigree and notched a hundred victories without loss across variants.
But development and production potential, combat record, performance and specs, though important, are not necessarily sufficient for an Indian acquisition, given the pursuit of customised and expensive ‘India-specific enhancements’ in the past.
USA! USA! USA?
First and before anything else, are decision-makers in Delhi comfortable with the idea of fielding a fleet of U.S. fighter aircraft — the first ever in the IAF?
Although the IAF might have listened with interest to an offer for the F-35, that can has been kicked down the road — at the very least, after India’s order for the Russian S-400 system. And even if the government of India succeeds in making nice by ordering the NASAMs kit, it would still be insufficient for a heart-to-heart on the F-35.
Indeed, given the inevitable strings attached, the IAF might even consider itself fortunate not to be the recipient of an F-35 offer.
Again, the F-15 is different. Not a ‘navy fighter’ or a ‘renamed F-16’, it is possibly the most capable and acceptable U.S. fighter the IAF would want offered to it.
But if an American fighter remains outside the field of imagination of decision-makers in the Government of India, the U.S. Government and Boeing would be wasting their time, in spite of offering a formidable competitor to the Rafale.
Relationship Status
The opportunity to supply offensive capabilities to a country like India is a prize far beyond a sales victory. Such sales create and define levels, shifts and milestones in bilateral relationships, potentially influencing, for example, votes at the UN Security Council. India has long relied on the Russian nyet and increasingly, more recently, on the French accent.
Cost will still matter, even though the IAF had to dump the life cycle cost-joke after the MMRCA and placed an eye-watering order for the 36 Rafale fighters.
This might not necessarily work against the F-15, given the unit price and volumes involved in the U.S. order for the latest model, even after the sunk one-time costs for the Indian infrastructure to operate the Rafale.
Flight Global‘s Greg Waldron broke the news out of the Singapore Air Show 2020 last month of the U.S. Government considering an application for an export licence for its F-15 fighter aircraft to India.
Although there is a lot to unpack here in terms of implications (which we will get to in a minute), StratPost can confirm that an export policy approval has been granted in the form of an ITAR-waiver. ITAR stands for International Traffic in Arms Regulations that govern the control of arms exports by the United States. Separately, F-15 manufacturer Boeing also applied for a DSP-5 licence in the fourth quarter of 2019, which would allow them to market the aircraft to India. Both the ITAR-waiver and the DSP-5 licence allow the sharing of information that is not already in the public domain, for the purpose of marketing. According to the U.S. State Department, ‘The DSP-5 can include hardware, software, or documents and is the mechanism used to obtain a Marketing License for information that is not public domain’.
Finally, StratPost can confirm that representatives of the U.S. government and Boeing have already conducted early conversations on the aircraft with the Indian Air Force (IAF) on their request, under the ITAR-waiver.
The IAF’s interest in the F-15 has emerged from the U.S. Air Force order for an upgraded model of the fighter, the lessons from the air defence battle that followed the Balakote raid and tacit recognition of the distinction between the F-15 and other U.S. fighter aircraft that have been offered to India.
Currently…
As we know, the Indian Air Force has a contest gathering steam for the acquisition of 114 fighter aircraft. This contest came about after the IAF withdrew its earlier contest for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) and ended up placing an order for 36 Rafale fighters.
Eye-rollingly called MMRCA 2.0, it includes the Russian Sukhoi-35, a relative of the Sukhoi-30MKI currently in service in the IAF, in addition to the MMRCA 6 (Saab Gripen, Lockheed Martin F-21/F-16 Block 70, Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and MiG-35).
Separately, the IAF is ordering, or plans to order an additional 18 Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft, 21 MiG-29 fighters and 83 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk1A in addition to the earlier order of 40 LCA. There has also been talk of a second order for Rafale fighters further down the road.
Impact on Perception
A potential U.S. offer of the F-15, as a standalone pitch or part of MMRCA 2.0, could alter the balance of the contest, currently weighed in favour of the Rafale, as well as, calculations on other future acquisitions with the emergence of a uniquely new option.
The two U.S. fighters on offer, the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the ‘F-21’ have both struggled with some of the baggage they are perceived to carry in India.
The Lockheed Martin ‘F-21’ is the F-16 Block 70 renamed for the Indian market, for the rather obvious reason that older variants of the F-16 are operated by the Pakistan Air Force. The F/A-18 Super Hornet is still seen somewhat dismissively by IAF puritans as primarily a navy fighter, even though the aircraft is also in service in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and earlier models are in service in multiple air forces around the world.
These perception problems have worked to the advantage of the French.
Should the French be worried? They might have good reason, for the first time in a long time, if an American fighter is acceptable to Delhi.
The F-15 suffers from none of these difficulties.
MMRCA 2.0
The Indian Air Force, enamoured as it is with the French Rafale, has remained unchanged in its propensity to sniff at the other aircraft competing with it, for some reason or another.
The terms of the new contest are, so far, broad enough for the aircraft on offer to range from single-engine lighter fighters like the Saab Gripen and the Lockheed Martin F-21 to the no-bullshit-seriously-heavy Sukhoi-35. The Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, F/A-18 Super Hornet and MiG-35 fall somewhere between these two extremes, with the F-15 bringing up the far end, followed by the Sukhoi.
But the contrast in availability and capability at this far end is not easily dismissed, given it’s something that actually works out when you need a fighter to come for an air defence battle and not just an air show. This has become clear since Balakote, with semi-official statements lamenting, ‘Rafale hota toh aisa hota, Rafale hota toh waisa hota‘.
The forthcoming RFP (Request For Proposal) could narrow this weight and performance spectrum if the IAF decides to display clarity of intention about exactly what they want.
But could the F-15 sway the IAF from its preference for the Rafale, given the IAF has had its heart set on the French fighter (really, any fighter as long as it was French)?
It’s not Russian, it’s not a ‘navy fighter’ and it’s not a renamed F-16. It’s certainly not the Gripen and even though the Eurofighter Typhoon was the Carl Lewis of the first MMRCA race, Airbus has not displayed any enthusiasm in chasing this particular IAF order. All the competing manufacturers are painfully aware the Rafale is the aircraft to beat, already having been ordered by the IAF.
U.S. Air Force F-15EX Order
Part of the reason for the IAF’s interest in the F-15 is the U.S. Air Force commitment to the latest model, the F-15EX, solidified recently with an intention to order the first eight aircraft and plans to buy a total of 144 aircraft.
It has evolved a multi-role capability on top of its air-superiority pedigree and notched a hundred victories without loss across variants.
But development and production potential, combat record, performance and specs, though important, are not necessarily sufficient for an Indian acquisition, given the pursuit of customised and expensive ‘India-specific enhancements’ in the past.
USA! USA! USA?
First and before anything else, are decision-makers in Delhi comfortable with the idea of fielding a fleet of U.S. fighter aircraft — the first ever in the IAF?
Although the IAF might have listened with interest to an offer for the F-35, that can has been kicked down the road — at the very least, after India’s order for the Russian S-400 system. And even if the government of India succeeds in making nice by ordering the NASAMs kit, it would still be insufficient for a heart-to-heart on the F-35.
Indeed, given the inevitable strings attached, the IAF might even consider itself fortunate not to be the recipient of an F-35 offer.
Again, the F-15 is different. Not a ‘navy fighter’ or a ‘renamed F-16’, it is possibly the most capable and acceptable U.S. fighter the IAF would want offered to it.
But if an American fighter remains outside the field of imagination of decision-makers in the Government of India, the U.S. Government and Boeing would be wasting their time, in spite of offering a formidable competitor to the Rafale.
Relationship Status
The opportunity to supply offensive capabilities to a country like India is a prize far beyond a sales victory. Such sales create and define levels, shifts and milestones in bilateral relationships, potentially influencing, for example, votes at the UN Security Council. India has long relied on the Russian nyet and increasingly, more recently, on the French accent.
Cost will still matter, even though the IAF had to dump the life cycle cost-joke after the MMRCA and placed an eye-watering order for the 36 Rafale fighters.
This might not necessarily work against the F-15, given the unit price and volumes involved in the U.S. order for the latest model, even after the sunk one-time costs for the Indian infrastructure to operate the Rafale.
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