The AS-550
Posted on 04/09/2007 9:20:24 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Eurocopter wins big Indian Army deal
Eurocopter has won the Indian Army's much-awaited deal for 197 modern light helicopters, estimated at around US$ 550 million.
According to a report in the latest issue of India Strategic magazine on defence and foreign affairs, the army chose Eurocopter's AS 550 C3 Fennec over the Bell Helicopter's Bell 407 after trials in hot, humid and high altitude conditions in Rajasthan, Punjab and Kashmir, including in Siachen - the Himalayan battlefield between Indian and Pakistani forces.
The new machines will replace the old and aged 1970s generation Chetak and Cheetah helicopters of the Indian Army, which has an appropriate plan to modernize and expand its Army Aviation Corps (AAC) in line with current and future rapid mobility battlefield requirements.
Eurocopter will supply 60 helicopters in a fly-away condition, made at its plants in France and Germany, while the remaining 137 will be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at its Bangalore facility.
Company sources told India Strategic that it would take three years to supply the Made in Europe lot, but that assembly lines would be set up simultaneously at HAL to facilitate their manufacture in India under Transfer of Technology (ToT).
Eurocopter also has the obligation to invest 30 percent of the deal back in the Indian defence industry under the now mandatory offset clause, a brainchild of Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt.
Commercial negotiations between Eurocopter, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) company, and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are slated to begin this month to fine-tune the deal as also to work out the weapons and electronic warfare package. A formal contract would be signed then.
The cost of weapons and other systems would be extra.
HAL has manufactured more than 600 Chetaks and Cheetahs, variants of the French Alouette, of which some 350 are used by the Indian Army.
The remaining are with the Indian Air Force (IAF), Navy and Coast Guard. It stands to reason that as their helicopters also need replacement, the Eurocopter's current order would multiply three-fold over the next few years to nearly $2 billion.
The three services have had an element of commonality in some systems in the past, but now, this is a requirement mandated by MoD to effect savings both in money and time. It is cheaper to manufacture and maintain a common system.
According to Lt Gen Vinayak Patankar (Retd), defence analyst and India Strategic's Editor Army, the acquisition of the new helicopter is timely and that as the Fennec is a sophisticated multi-role machine, the Indian Army could use it for Reconnaissance and Observation, Electronic Warfare, Anti-Tank role, and also to inject and extricate personnel from the battlefield.
The Indian Army, which needs many more helicopters for varied roles for medium to heavy lift requirements, had been wanting a light, agile machine the for the last 15 years to replace the now-vintage Alouette. Incidentally, Allouette was the first turbine helicopter in the world, and its maker, Aerospatiale, was later absorbed into Eurocopter, which already has a strong relationship with HAL.
The two companies have an agreement to co-develop business, and EADS has supplied parts for the slightly bigger and versatile HAL-made Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv, which has already been inducted by both the IAF and Army.
It may be recalled that more than 70 percent of various systems with the Indian armed forces are of Soviet vintage, and all the three services were starved of modernization due to the freeze imposed by the V.P. Singh government over allegations of corruption in the Bofors guns deal in the late 1980s.
The 1999 Kargil war, in which India neither had the gun locating radars to find and neutralize Pakistani artillery, nor adequate munitions for its Bofors guns, triggered the removal of the paralysis in the MoD, and ever since, many new systems from ships to submarines, tanks and aircraft have been ordered.
The deal for the Fennecs is the second helicopter deal by India, the first being the IAF's follow-on order for 80 Mi 17 IV medium lift helicopters from Russia last year.
Notably, all the helicopters with the Indian armed forces are more than 20 years old and need to be replaced.
According to a Bell Helicopter survey, the helicopter market in India will be worth about $4 billion over the next few years.
EADS President and CEO Lutz Bertling said during a recent visit to India that his company could supply the first helicopter within 2007 itself, adding that he was also willing for collaboration to produce a medium lift helicopter in India.
The Indian government had floated the requirement for the light helicopters in 2004 but revised it in 2005 to introduce the offset clause. Initially, there were five contenders including Agusta (Italy), Bell (US), Eurocopter, and Kamov and Kazan (Russia).
EADS manufactures the Ariane rockets used sometimes by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its satellite launches as also the commercial Airbus aircraft.
According to an EADS statement, HAL has a contract to provide 600 sets of doors for various Airbus aircraft, and of which it has delivered over 300. A new batch of A320 doors has been ordered recently. HAL has also produced parts for the A320 nose undercarriage. The production of A340 emergency doors is also due to start at HAL.
- By Gulshan Luthra
The AS-550
Specifications
Country of Origin
Builder
Role UN-Utility,Reconaissance
AN-Armed Battlefield Reconaissance
MN-Naval
SN-Anti-Submarine
Similar Aircraft
Wing Span
Length
Height
Weight 2,250 kg/4,960 lb Maximum
2,800 kg/6,172 lb Maximal with external load
Maximum useful load 1,046 kg/2,306 lb (including mission fuel)
Sling load capacity 1,400 kg/3,086 lb
Engine 1 TURBOMECA ARRIEL 2B or
2 Turbomeca Arrius TM 319 1 A1 Engines
Maximum speed 136 mph
Cruising speed 245 km/h-133 kts ( at maximum weight)
Range 650 km-350 n.m.
Service Ceiling
Armament AN - Cannon, rocket-launchers, machine guns
SN - Torpedo
Crew
Cost
User Countries
Sounds like socialists helping socialists here.
Who is helping whom in this case(over 300 helos in this case)-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1658754/posts
Europe’s EADS wins big U.S. helicopter competition
Offsets of one or the other sort is a universal reality in these days.
Its only shortcoming is that it will only fly in reverse.
From what I understand, the Eurocopter carries more than a dozen book deals per sortie.
Really? I didn't know that. Can you link me to a non-European link of that sort where an American defense contractor is involved?
How much CARBON does thing put out?????
There you have politicians sit down and make the decisions on behalf of state run pseudo private firms like Airbus. The latest negotiations between France and Germany are a perfect example. Which plants of Airbus remain and get closed is no decision made by a private firm, but rather politically by heads of state, since you’re dealing with more or less state run firms in all reality. But this extends far further than just the aerospace sector.
Our own DoD will gladly buy foreign made products if they see a cost of performance advantage. Our own governmental agencies operate like little firms with their budgets etc, and soon Bush himself will fly on a helicopter designed by Eurocopter, even though in the US you have three major helicopter manufacturers. The fact that we buy foreign made hardware would not be so upsetting were it not for the fact that our own manufacturers often don’t get a fair shake overseas. Airbus is a perfect example. Lufthansa, Air France were going to buy Airbus once Airbus built a product for a specific market niche, even if Boeing had a better priced or value for the money product. However, in the US, firms like United or JetBlue etc don’t care where it’s built and you don’t have a government hand that through it’s influence persuades firms to buy American. Though it's contradicting of free trade, which I whole heartedly support, I still think that we should place restrictions on foreign made aerospace products originating from EADS specifically, since this is the firm that for years has been subsidized, protected, and more or less guaranteed major contracts while cutting our Boeing and MD. The fact that the President himself will be flying in a product made by this firm is a shame. It's more or less rewarding and validating that this sort of behavior is acceptable and that if the stakes are high enough, the US simply won't make a fuss about it.
Very nice & capable helicopter...
Err,one of the most visible examples of offsets(or call it whatever you want) is the Lockheed Martin F-35 JSF.It’s at the begining of the day a purely American fighter,but every country which has signed up has managed to /or is trying to yank out a few contracts/subcontracts for it’s industries.You never saw that with the F-16 or earlier platforms.
The new Presidential helo will be made AgustaWestland,which is Anglo-Italian & is a competitor to Eurocopter,which is mainly French-German.
Ahhhh, that’s a relief. THX, for some reason my brain thought it was Eurocopter. Eurocopter is under EADS that’s why I was complaining.
http://www.teamus101.com/index.cfm
I have nothing against free trade and think competition is good. But the crap that has been going on with Airbus for years now, is out of control. The DoD is buying some Eurocopter light helicopters and there was grumbling about an Airbus version of a future tanker made under license by Grumman. EADS should be cut out of all governmental contracts in every way until this nonsense stops. Fair trade does not mean they cut out US manufacturers in their nationalized firms but want to sell to us like mad in the US. Fair trade does not mean that just making counter accusations and denying that they are heavily state subsidized makes it anything other than what it is. Airbus is the epitome of modern state managed enterprise and protectionism and our government and especially US tax dollars should not go towards anything of this nature unless their is no alternative.
Can you point me in the direction of any links that discuss this aspect of the contracts specifically? I have never heard of any US companies doing this, and would like to find out a little more about it...I also want to make sure we are talking about the same thing...a quid pro quo type of arrangement...Thanks!
In Norway, Lockheed Lobbies Hard for JSF
http://dfn.dnmediagroup.com/story.php?F=1947422&C=airwar
The Norwegians want the Americans to agree to devolve part of their funding back into Norwegian industry to support among other things,the addition of Norwegian missile systems to the JSF,which was not planned.The Norwegians still haven’t firmly committed,though L.M has declared it would jointly promote the Konsberg Naval Strike Missle(NSM).
Foreign Governments Attempt to Obtain Key U.S. Defense Technologies
http://www.americaneconomicalert.org/view_art.asp?
Prod_ID=2410
The JSF while having various problems is having a new engine being developed for it.G.E & Rolls Royce have joined to develop the F-136.Not in small part due to Britain’s lobbying.Funny thing is that G.E is doing about 60% of resources for the programme,while R.R get 40%.
So the Brits ask for contracts for home based industry & the Yanks give it & a few dollars as well!!!Call it what you want-offsets,outsourcing,joint development....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.