Italian aircraft firm in talks with Tata

[Contrarian]

Italian aircraft firm in talks with Tata

NEW DELHI: Italian firm Alenia Aeronautica, one of the partner companies of the Eurofighter consortium, is in talks with Tata group to promote the possible sale of a tactical transport aircraft and anti-submarine warfare aircraft for the Indian defence forces.

Alenia Aeronautica, which has already signed an MoU with the Tatas, is negotiating a marketing and industrial co-operation agreement to promote the C-27J Spartan tactical transport and ATR 42/72 anti-submarine warfare aircraft to the Indian services, a leading aviation journal said.

If the negotiations are successful, the MoU will be converted into a true contract, 'The Flight International' said.
When contacted, a Tata spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied the report, saying "we would not like to comment on the matter."

Alenia has offered Tata some industrialisation tools for the C-27J under the initiative, which is aimed at offering the twin-turboprop design to the Indian Air Force "in case current efforts to co-operatively develop a new Multi Role Transport Aircraft (MRTA) by Hindustan Aeronautics and Irkut fail", the report said.

The MRTA programme, which is a development of the Ilyushin Il-214 twin-turbofan with a maximum cargo capacity of around 18-20t, has faced numerous troubles in recent years, it said, adding that it was "still not clear whether the project will be finalised".
Italian aircraft firm in talks with Tata- Airlines / Aviation-Transportation-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

 

[Flintlock]

Frick, Tata is going places.

 

[blain2]

C-27J is a very capable aircraft (I would be inclined to say that it may become the worthy successor to the venerable Herc.)

 

[JK!]

It would be a good replacement for the An 32s currently in IAF service.

 

[Contrarian]

C-27J is a very capable aircraft (I would be inclined to say that it may become the worthy successor to the venerable Herc.)

How can it be a successor to the Hercules blain? I thought the Hercules latest was the C-130 'J' variant, which is supposed to be damned good? Isnt the USAF ordering a whole bunch of the J variants? Wont that mean its long life is assured?

 

[Contrarian]

I personally dont think that it would fail. I think that the Russian collaboration would work. Its not with Irkut anymore, its with Illushyin now, or UAC as they call it now.

 

[Energon]

I personally dont think that it would fail. I think that the Russian collaboration would work. Its not with Irkut anymore, its with Illushyin now, or UAC as they call it now.

The recent dealings between Russia and India don't inspire much confidence. Also, the GoI has to start decentralizing the defense industry and only maintain a role of proficient regulator. One of the biggest problems in India has been the public sector's hegemony over the defense industry; which when coupled with the high amount of funds involved (based on the needs of a military the size of the Indian armed forces) has led to series of debacles on account of corruption, inefficiency, incompetence and outright stupidity. In the bargain, the security of the nation and the region at large has been compromised on more than one occasion and countless precious lives have been lost.

The only way out is for the defense establishment to become more productive (reach its potential) and transparent enough to be held accountable. The only way for this to happen is to hand most of it over to the private sector and ensure healthy competition. I say open the floodgates and let all the big guns have a shot at JVs.

 

[Contrarian]

Let me put it on record here Energon, that the GoI is now worried over whether the Indian industry can even absorb all the offsets that will be given by the foreign companies. India is going to spend really big money, and that means really big amount of offsets are going to be there. There simply arent enough grade A companies that foreign vendors find acceptable enough to do business in the private sector.

Example, is TATA. YOu see TATA has signed JV's with like 20 different foreign arms vendors from LM to Boeing to EADS. Thats because in the private sector no other/or very few companies can offer the requisite standards that these foreign companies want for tieups. Thus you see that most of the offsets would go to PSU's.

TATA as of now is the only company in India that is becomming truely engaged in defence in a big way. L&T is only going after engineering and construction requirements of India. Same of Godrej, etc, etc, all are going for their niche fortes. Only TATA is doing everything.