Aerospace Diary

Defense Aviation Week & Space Technology Nov 15 , 2010 , p. 46 Neelam Mathews New Delhi Obama’s visit to India stokes agreements, but not on everything Security Pact Remains U.S.-India Sticking Point The Indian air force is exploring upgrade options for U.S. military aircraft that will be handed over without key capabilities in the absence of an agreement governing those systems. The U.S. is withholding several subsystems until India ratifies the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement, which governs current and future transfers of intelligence systems to India. India is not ready to commit to the security pact and instead is willing to take slightly less capable U.S. systems initially, expecting to backfill the missing features later. The strategy will be tested when the Indian air force starts taking delivery of six Lockheed Martin C-130Js next month. They are the fir...

Aerospace Daily-Aviation Week Nov11, 2010 FUNDING & POLICY NEW DELHI – India will release its Defense Production Policy and also introduce major changes to the delayed 2010 Defense Procurement Policy (DPP) in January 2011, Defense Minister A.K. Antony said Nov. 10. “So now we are going to take some more drastic steps to achieve our goal of speedy indigenization,” Antony said. In anticipation of the move, many international companies have formed Indian subsidiaries. Meanwhile, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India has recommended DPP 2010 should consider a higher foreign direct investment cap of 49% to encourage foreign joint ventures. The chamber also recommended that supplies of homeland security and dual-use items, technology-based projects and some sections of civil aviation engine parts and avionics should qualify as offsets. It is likely that some of these changes will be incorporated into DPP 2010 and be announced next year. “Our aim is to ha...