Capt.Popeye
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came across this when I was doing my daily routine surfing.
Boeing Eyes India Market For UAVs, Ospreys
Do you think it's a good move for India to buy V-22 Osprey?
First with Poseidon, the Globemaster and then Apache, Imagine the sight of 4 apache longbow and a few osprey follow in the Himalayas
There have been preliminary talks about the MV-22 Osprey and Boeing has made presentations to both the IAF and IN; but no serious evaluations have been carried out.
Going forward, there are two issues:
First is the cost of ownership and operations of these aircraft. Considering that the IAF and IN are concentrating on renewal/replacement of hardware first; there does not seem to be allocation of Capital Budgets for this aircraft. Remember that the Defence Budget(s) in India have to be transparent and are subject to discussion and debate.
The second is the fact that major defence eqpt. acquisitions are always tied into Strategic and Political considerations. While the Strategic relationship between India and USA has progressed rapidly; India is still wary of "strings that may be attached". Hence India has steadfastly refused to sign pacts such as CISMOA etc. Only when USA was willing to forego such agreements did India sign up for hardware acquisitions. While the Osprey is less likely to be impacted by such pacts (unlike fighter jets), India has carefully negotiated through every defence deal with the US.
India shares some interests with the US but is not keen to get into any military alliance or become some kind of Camp-Follower.
I think that the Osprey will come up for serious consideration only 5 years down the line.