Amid speculations that a second foreign company would be roped in to manufacture fighter aircraft under the Make in India project, India’s air force chief is preparing to visit production facilities of Swedish manufacturer SAAB.
According to India’s Ministry of Defense, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Chief of the Air Staff, will be visiting a flying base of the Swedish Air Force and the production facilities of SAAB at Linkoping where Gripen aircraft are manufactured. SAAB has offered to develop, manufacture and undertake the final assembly of its Gripen fighter jet in India with actual Transfer of Technology under the Make in India project.
Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha is on an official visit to Sweden from June 7. During his stay in Sweden he will be calling on the Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist and is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with the Supreme Commander of Swedish Armed Forces and the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The visit carries great significance as it is taking place after Swedish PM Stefan Lofven’s visit to India earlier this year in February to attend the Defense Expo-2016 held in Goa in southern India. Both India and Sweden identified defense as one of the key areas of cooperation during the visit.
Last month, in an interview to All India Radio, India’s defense minister Manohar Parrikar said, “India will select a good fighter by the end of this fiscal year to be made domestically. It is not yet decided which aircraft it would be. It may be F18, Rafale, Eurofighter or Gripen. The decision in this regard will be taken in this fiscal year.”
Recently, SAAB unveiled the Gripen E advanced fighter aircraft and offered to manufacture it in India. However, apart from SAAB, other global giants like Lockheed Martin and Boeing are also keen on catering to the requirements of the Indian Air Force. Boeing and Lockheed Martin have proposed to manufacture the F/A-18 and F-16 respectively under the Make in India mission.
However, only last month, Defense Minister Parrikar said in Parliament, “The experience of flying against F-16 is what we require as we are not going to induct the F-16, at least; as of now.”
Gripen E Multirole Fighter Aircraft
The Saab Gripen E is a light single-engine multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace company Saab. Gripen E is an enhanced version of the Gripen C/D multi-role aircraft. The new fighter aircraft, whose initial delivery is scheduled for 2018, will replace the Swiss Air Force’s fleet of Northrop F-5E/F Tiger.
The sixth variant of the Gripen line, the first of which entered active service in 1997, the Gripen E carries on with the basic design of a lightweight, agile multi-role fighter with a fast-turnaround time and the ability to operate from small airfields or even motorways. It’s designed for low maintenance and a service life of 50 years. In addition, it has very flexible hardware and avionics, plus a large number of hardpoints designed to carry almost any weapon in the current inventory.
The Gripen E retains the delta wing and canard configuration and fly-by-wire flight avionics, but differs from previous versions in that it has more fuel capacity, a General Electric F414G jet engine for 20 percent more thrust, more pylons, and increased takeoff weight. It also has in-flight refueling capability and is NATO compatible.
There’s also the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) that uses an array of radars to track multiple targets individually, the IRST electro-optical system for tracking and locking onto hostiles passively, and a radar jamming system. In addition, the Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) can passively or actively warn of incoming missiles or enemy radar locks, while the Missile Approach Warning (MAW) system tracks incoming missiles.
The air-to-air missiles on the Gripen E include infrared-guided short range IRIS-T missile, and the Meteor missile, which is a beyond visual range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM).
The aircraft features a 27mm all-purpose Mauser BK27 high velocity gun providing both air-to-air and air-to-surface attack capability. It is also equipped with a missile approach warning (MAW) system and is capable of carrying more chaff packets and flares compared to similar aircraft, enhancing its survivability.
Source:- Sputnik
The post Raha to visit Sweden and checkout SAAB Facilities , Is India looking to select Gripen E ? appeared first on Defence Update.
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