Lockheed plans manufacturing F-16s in India
Swedish defence giant SAAB on Friday said it will set up in India one of the most advanced aircraft production facilities globally if its Gripen E multi-role jet wins the deal. The Swedish giant is eyeing a contract for IAF’s single-engine fighter jets,
Top SAAB officials said the company has already finalised a blueprint for setting up the hub which will manufacture Gripen E for India. Apart from this, the company will have separate facilities to design, develop, modify and enhance new fighters for the future.
Kent-Ake Molin, Director of Sales and Marketing of Gripen, said felt that the Gripen E was the “best” multi-role fighter for IAF. He added that the aircraft manufacturing hub conceived by SAAB for India will be the most modern facility in the world with a major focus on technology transfer.
Besides the Air Force, SAAB is also looking at supplying the Indian Navy a naval version of Gripen with advanced features and capability to take off from aircraft carriers.
Asked whether technology transfer would be difficult as Gripen jet engine has components developed by US defence majors, particularly under Donald Trump’s presidency, Molin said there was no reason to worry and concerns regarding the issue are misplaced.
He said India’s light com- bat aircraft has US components and any such issues will be resolved.
SAAB had offered Gripen for the Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft deal which was eventually awarded to French Dassault’s Rafale.
Molin said the facility for India would include a dedicated Gripen Design Centre, a major production facility equipped with the latest manufacturing technolo- gies and robotics systems, a radar and sensor centre, final assembly plus test and verification centres, among others.
“It will also have repair and overhaul and design services,” he said, adding the fighter technology ecosystem would support the full spectrum of production capabilities for India, including parts manufacturing and subassembly. importance is properly aligned with US policy priorities.” India is expected to spend $ 250 billion on defence modernisation over the next decade, analysts say, and there is concern that a veto on making the F-16 in India would not only hit Lockheed, but also threaten other military contracts to come up in India for Boeing, Northrop and Raytheon.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the plan to build the plane in India.
A person close to Lockheed said company officials did not know what the Trump administration planned to do about the proposal to shift F-16 production to India.
“They’re following it closely and talking with the White House. But if they don’t move production to India, there’s no way they’ll get the India contract,” the person said.
One argument to be made was that moving to India would preserve some component production in the United States. “Twenty-five percent of something is better than zero percent of nothing,” the person said.
Lockheed has said that moving F-16 assembly to India would create 200 engineering jobs in the United States to help support the production line in India.
It has also said that about 800 workers in the United States making the non-Lockheed parts for the F-16 would keep their jobs if construction shifts to India.
“We are offering to make the F-16 Block-70 aircraft with a local partner in India. This is an offer exclusive to India,” Randall L. Howard, head of F-16 business development, told Reuters ahead of India’s biggest air show beginning in Bengaluru next week.
In India, the F-16 is up against SAAB’s Gripen combat aircraft.