Lockheed Martin signs pact with Tata to make F-16 planes in India

[iPhone]

Wait a minute, what happened to Trumps campaign promise of keeping U.S. jobs in the U.S.? American jobs going to India, same old clinton and obama policies.

 

[Papa Dragon]

Wait a minute, what happened to Trumps campaign promise of keeping U.S. jobs in the U.S.? American jobs going to India, same old clinton and obama policies.

Well LM needs money and there is no way India would buy jets from LM off the shelf at least not in large #s. Even if it's in smaller numbers, IAF would go for Rafale rather than F-16s if its off the shelf purchase. In-order to make money outta their outdated tech, shifting the line to India is their only option. I hope our govt won't make this dumb move by selecting an outdated tech as all we can expect from the US is only transfer of assembly line but not full ToT

Escalating costs will make F-16 costly and India won't go for them
You just can't throw a blanket statement over all service chiefs


If shifting is for India alone.
Why should India pay for an outdated design and old infra, that too to feed a foreign company....
LM should be day dreaming

I didn't throw a blanket statement over all the service chiefs but that is what happened in the past during AK Anthony's regime where the DM and the service chiefs (few of them) were largely involved in corruption which put many acquisitions on hold and killed many indigenous project as well. Why do you think IN has more indigenous stuff in their arsenal while IA and IAF always incline towards foreign products. Killing the Arjun tank project is one example even though it surpassed T-90s when they were pitted against each other. Hopefully the current govt is doing a better job in promoting and inducting indigenous stuff.

 

[assassin123]

Wait a minute, what happened to Trumps campaign promise of keeping U.S. jobs in the U.S.? American jobs going to India, same old clinton and obama policies.

The existing ones will be probably converted into F35 production lines as there is a huge order. LM does not expect a lot of F-16 Orders in the future.

 

[#hydra#]

Escalating costs will make F-16 costly and India won't go for them
You just can't throw a blanket statement over all service chiefs


If shifting is for India alone.
Why should India pay for an outdated design and old infra, that too to feed a foreign company....
LM should be day dreaming

Yeas,now you come to the point,LM offer isn't a lucrative one when comes to tech transfer and ability of the platform. There is no much room for f16 in the future war of gen5 fighters. Ironically,we will pay from our pocket to shift a fighter platform ( f16 still not outdated one,but will be soon) indirectly as a total cost of f16,by expecting an ally status of US. But in my opinion US always wants puppets,not ally. In broad sense even israel and UK are puppets to US,the day when these nation acts against US interest,they will be punished by US.

 

[jetray]

Wait a minute, what happened to Trumps campaign promise of keeping U.S. jobs in the U.S.? American jobs going to India, same old clinton and obama policies.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ford-t...ocus-compact-car-to-u-s-from-china-1497966971
its gone with the wind, now even cars will be imported from china.

 

[My-Analogous]

Lockheed Martin signed an agreement with India’s Tata Advanced Systems on Monday to produce F-16 fighter planes in India, pressing ahead with a plan to shift its Fort Worth, Texas plant to win billions of dollars worth of order from the Indian military.

India’s air force needs hundreds of aircraft to replace its Soviet-era fleet, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has said foreign suppliers would have to make the planes in India with a local partner to help build a domestic industrial base and cut outright imports.

But Modi’s Make-in-India drive runs the risk of conflicting with US President Donald Trump’s America First campaign under which he has been pressing for companies to invest in the United States and create jobs instead of setting up factories abroad.

In announcing their agreement at the Paris Airshow, Lockheed and Tata said moving the production base to India would still retain jobs in the United States.

“F-16 production in India supports thousands of Lockheed Martin and F-16 supplier jobs in the US, creates new manufacturing jobs in India, and positions Indian industry at the center of the most extensive fighter aircraft supply ecosystem in the world,” a joint statement by the firms said.

Sweden’s Saab is the other contender to supply the Indian Air Force, offering to make its Gripen fighter in India. It has not yet announced a local partner for the plane which it has pitched as a modern alternative to the F-16s.

The announcement comes days before Modi travels to Washington for a first meeting with Trump, scheduled for June. 26. India and the United States have built a close defence relationship in recent years with Washington emerging as among the top three arms suppliers to India, along with Russia and Israel.

India will also have the chance to export the F-16 that is flown by air forces around the world, the joint statement said. Some 3,200 of these planes are being flown by 26 countries and the model that is being offered to India will be Block 70, the most modern of all the F-16s.

“This unprecedented F-16 production partnership between the world’s largest defense contractor and India’s premier industrial house provides India the opportunity to produce, operate and export F-16 Block 70 aircraft, the newest and most advanced version of the world’s most successful, combat-proven multi-role fighter,” the statement said.

Tata is already building airframe components for the C-130 military transport aircraft.

India has not opened formal bidding for the jet order, which is expected to be anything from 100 planes to 250.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/busin...es-in-india/story-lZvjju73YPMorAo5d3nrEN.html

Congrats, You guys made another mother of all shit, Sorry Mother of all deal. Best of luck

 

[hassamun]

Will India decide who to Export the F-16s to or will they keep on asking the Americans?

 

[StraightShooter]

An F-16 pilot from the 169th Fighter Wing, South Carolina Air National Guard, flies a training mission over the North Carolina coast. U.S. Air Force photo by SMSgt Thomas Meneguin.
Analyst: India, not Greenville, to fill biggest future F-16 order
‘Greenville was always going to be an interim site, at best,’ says aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia.

by Rudolph Bell

Lockheed disclosed the India plan on Monday at the Paris Air Show as part of its bid to capture an expected contract from the Indian government that reportedly would involve the purchase of up to 200 single-engine fighter jets.

Lockheed said it would make the latest generation of the F-16 in India — assuming it wins the contract — as part of a partnership with the aerospace and defense arm of Tata Group, the big Indian conglomerate.

That Tata subsidiary, Hyderabad-based Tata Advanced Systems Ltd., already supplies parts for Lockheed Martin’s C-130J military transport aircraft and for helicopters made by Lockheed subsidiary, Sikorsky Aircraft.

Lockheed spokesman John Losinger told UBJ that the India plan doesn’t change what the company previously said about filling future F-16 orders from the 16-hangar facility in southern Greenville County where it has refurbished military aircraft since 1984.

Losinger said Lockheed is pursuing F-16 sales to Bahrain, Indonesia, and other foreign countries, and the Greenville facility would perform final assembly for those orders if they come to be.

The Trump administration has reportedly informally notified Congress that it approves of Lockheed selling up to 19 F-16s to Bahrain, but a formal, public notice has not yet been issued.

Losinger said Lockheed hopes to nail down the sale to Bahrain by the end of this year or early next year.

He said the potential F-16 sale to Indonesia remains a subject of talks between the Asian country and the United States. He declined to give a number of aircraft on the table in that potential deal.

Losinger also said the Greenville facility would assemble some of the initial aircraft sold to India if Lockheed wins that contract.

As it waits to finalize future F-16 business, Lockheed expects to fill the last remaining order for the fighter — a sale to Iraq — by the end of the year at its factory in Fort Worth, Texas.

After that, the company will begin an 18-month process to move F-16 assembly to Greenville, but only once it nails down another order, Losinger said.

He said Lockheed agreed to make the F-16 in India because that is widely expected to be a requirement of any sale of the jet to the Indian government.

The letter of intent that Lockheed unveiled in Paris also provides for India to export Indian-made F-16s, which means India could be competing with Greenville for any work to upgrade about 3,200 F-16s currently in use by various countries, Losinger said.

Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with Teal Group, an aerospace consultancy in Fairfax, Va., said the F-16 is “on its last legs” and he doesn’t expect Greenville to make many of the supersonic jets.

“The F-16’s only real hope for a sustainable line is an India order, and that means building in India,” Aboulafia said in an email to UBJ from Paris.

Lockheed’s deal to make F-16s in India with Tata was “an inevitable agreement, and Greenville was always going to be an interim site, at best,” Aboulafia said. “Perhaps the Bahrain planes will be built [in Greenville], and conceivably a few others.”

Lockheed’s local complex, however, remains a potential location for assembly of a different supersonic military aircraft.

Lockheed has said it would perform final assembly of the South Korea-made T50A in Greenville if it wins a contract to supply 350 jets to the U.S. Air Force for training fighter pilots.

Lockheed Martin is competing with a Boeing/Saab alliance for that multibillion-dollar contract, as well as an Italian company called Leonardo.

https://upstatebusinessjournal.com/news/india-deal-raises-questions-f-16-work-greenville/

Will India decide who to Export the F-16s to or will they keep on asking the Americans?

India would have no say in that. The IP is owned by the US companies and the decision making would be entirely with the US. If US says make spares and sell to Pakistan, Indian partner TATA would have to oblige.

 

[Hamza913]

Well at least now you realise the Russians had been taking India for a ride all along. How many TOT actually resulted into something.

Please do realize all American weapons come with restrictions and strings attached. i heard there are specific launch codes for F-16s. Example if US don't want India to attack country X, they can actually choose to immobilize the F-16S. That's what I heard from my Singaporean friends who had been training in F-16s as pilots.

That's possible, but unlikely as India doesn't have any enemies the US loves.

 

[kris]

Yeas,now you come to the point,LM offer isn't a lucrative one when comes to tech transfer and ability of the platform. There is no much room for f16 in the future war of gen5 fighters. Ironically,we will pay from our pocket to shift a fighter platform ( f16 still not outdated one,but will be soon) indirectly as a total cost of f16,by expecting an ally status of US. But in my opinion US always wants puppets,not ally. In broad sense even israel and UK are puppets to US,the day when these nation acts against US interest,they will be punished by US.

They haven't quoted the price yet. How can you call it sour?

Well LM needs money and there is no way India would buy jets from LM off the shelf at least not in large #s. Even if it's in smaller numbers, IAF would go for Rafale rather than F-16s if its off the shelf purchase. In-order to make money outta their outdated tech, shifting the line to India is their only option. I hope our govt won't make this dumb move by selecting an outdated tech as all we can expect from the US is only transfer of assembly line but not full ToT


I didn't throw a blanket statement over all the service chiefs but that is what happened in the past during AK Anthony's regime where the DM and the service chiefs (few of them) were largely involved in corruption which put many acquisitions on hold and killed many indigenous project as well. Why do you think IN has more indigenous stuff in their arsenal while IA and IAF always incline towards foreign products. Killing the Arjun tank project is one example even though it surpassed T-90s when they were pitted against each other. Hopefully the current govt is doing a better job in promoting and inducting indigenous stuff.

Leave behind the past and move ahead

 

[Hamza913]

Game changer if the deal goes in. Massive blow for PAF. Obviously F-35 will be next in line. F16 block 70 is same as blk 52 but with AESA radar. Only option left for PAF is to have 5th generation procurement in decent numbers.

I agree.

We should continue to upgrade and mass produce JF-17 as our 4th gen fighter, whilst we develop our 5th gen fighter and start producing that whilst also buying more 5th gen fighters from China and Turkey.

But it wouldn't hurt to buy some J-10's.

 

[hassamun]

India would have no say in that. The IP is owned by the US companies and the decision making would be entirely with the US. If US says make spares and sell to Pakistan, Indian partner TATA would have to oblige.

There might be problems if India wants to sell to a country but the US rejects...

In my honest opinion, there is no use of such a technological transfer. If Pakistan is making under licensed MP5s then they don't need to ask Heckler & Koch or even Germany if they can sell them to other countries...

 

[SecularNationalist]

A automobile manufacturer is now going to make fighter jets??

 

[StraightShooter]

There might be problems if India wants to sell to a country but the US rejects...

In my honest opinion, there is no use of such a technological transfer. If Pakistan is making under licensed MP5s then they don't need to ask Heckler & Koch or even Germany if they can sell them to other countries...

That's how it works unless one can do it indigenously.

Even in case of a JV like Brahmos, Russia has a veto on which nation it could be sold to.

Can Pakistan sell JF-17s to a nation if China objects?

 

[hassamun]

A automobile manufacturer is now going to make fighter jets??

Comparing Tata Automobiles to Tata Conglomerate is like comparing Pepsi to Pepsi Co International. Tata has many different companies within it. Tata Advanced Systems deals with Military Aviation. For further information:-

http://www.tataadvancedsystems.com/