What lies beyond India’s push for 36 (plus options) Rafale fighters from France? There’s been a great deal of speculation, fuelled mostly by aggressive offers to build fighters in India. The detritus of the M-MRCA campaign threw up a fertile new field simply because India is still nowhere close to operating the number of fighter jets it needs. Aggressive offers to set up brand new fighter production lines in India from Boeing Defense, Lockheed-Martin and Saab have energised the Make-in-India push for the MoD, but it has still remained largely fuzzy.
But now there’s some rare official clarity and it’s right from the top. Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was in Hyderabad today where he presided over the ceremonials at a Boeing-Tata event to establish a new facility that will build, for starters, AH-64 fuselages.
In a short speech, where touched upon the MoD’s Make in India plans, he is reported to have said, “If you want aerospace technology to come here and construct here, though I don’t commit anything for F-18. Let me put the disclaimer, that we are definitely in the process of developing one or two ‘fighter Make in India’ programs.”
It isn’t clear what the Minister means by ‘or or two’, but it certainly means at least one. The Minister didn’t spare a dig at the press too. “When I say ‘disclaimer’, doesn’t mean that you are out. Two incidents that should not be linked with press, as Indian press is very imaginative; that’s why I’m making this statement.”
The Minister was clearly very pleased with the establishment of the new facility, given its a loud bang for the Make in India campaign, a push that has been criticised as largely cosmetic. With a facility that will churn out Apache fuselages for all future global customers eventually, the Minister didn’t hold back on the joy.
“Let me first acknowledge Boeing kept their word. A promise that was given to me after we concluded the Apache and Chinook deal; that after the offset this particular facility will be located in India and by shifting it from the place they already had the facility. Keeping their word, and I always think that those who remember what they say at the time of celebration and complete it afterwards are people to be noted for future references. Let me acknowledge Boeing for this deal,” the Minister said.
ALSO READ: Livefist reported recently on Saab’s aggressive pitch on the Make in India Gripen NG too.
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