Saab, Adani to tie up for fighter jet contract

NEWDELHI: Sweden’s Saab will tie up with India’s Adani Group to bid for a contract to make fighter aircraft in India, an aerospace consultant aware of the proposed partnership told Reuters on Thursday. The partnership will compete with US defence giant Lockheed Martin in a two horserace to equip the Indian military with single-engine jets to be produced under the Make-in-India initiative.

The Saab-Adani partnership would be aimed at producing planes under India’s new “strategic partnership” policy, said Ratan Shrivastava, an independent New-Delhi-based consultant and adviser at FICCI. The partnership will likely be announced on Friday, Shrivastava said.

Saab declined to comment. Saab president and CEO Hakan Buskhe will host a media event in New Delhi on Friday, Saab said in a press invitation on Wednesday. It did not give details.

There was no immediate comment from Adani, which is a $12-billion group with businesses ranging from energy and logistics to real estate and defence.

Shares in Adani Enterprises Ltd, a group company, rose on Thursday after the news of the planned Saab tie-up and were trading about 2.7% higher. Saab shares were up 1.8%.

Under India’s new defence partnership policy, a foreign aircraft maker will collaborate with an Indian firm to develop a worldclass indigenous aeronautical base that India has struggled to build for decades.

Lockheed has already picked India’s Tata Advanced Systems as its local partner to produce its F-16 fighter planes that will compete with Saab’s Gripen aircraft.

The government will issue a formal request to Lockheed and Saab over the next few days to provide information about their plans to design, develop and produce combat jets in India, a government official told Reuters earlier this week.