The defense industry of the US gets a new business partner in the much touted candidate India. It comes in the form of India’s decision to buy six Lockheed Martin C-130J (Hercules) military transport planes for a cost of about $1 billion. India’s plans of allocating $50 billion to modernize its defense system by 2020 prompted the US to grab the business opportunity. Hitherto, India’s 70% of defense needs is met by Russia and the obvious shift is to diversify the country from the over-dependence on any particular source. As to add fuel to fire, during the last decade India had to bear the brunt of malfunction of several Russian made MIG fighter planes which took many lives of experienced pilots of Indian Air Force.
Lockheed, the Pentagon’s No. 1 supplier by sales, and Boeing, its next largest supplier, are bidding against Russian and European rivals for a potential $10.2bn deal to sell the Indian Air Force 126 new multi-purpose fighter aircrafts. The recent meeting headed by the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh has already given the green signal to the contract. India is entering into such a deal with the US after a gap of 50 years and last time it was when they acquired American Fairchild C-119 aircrafts in the early 1950’s. The current deal will be with the life-time guarantee on maintenance support for the four-engine turboprop transport aircraft which will be used for special missions.
Lockheed Martin Corp will configure the aircraft with missile and radar warning system. The 30 meter long Hercules which is capable of carrying a load of 20 tonnes has an ability to take off and land in short, makeshift strips. It is equipped with better maneuverability aspects compared to the currently used 40 tonne capacity Soviet era 10 transport aircraft. The Indian side claimed that these planes would be utilized for humanitarian missions around the globe. This deal is close on heels with the recent contract of $1.5 billion with France’s Dassault to upgrade 51 Mirage-2000 fighter jets that the Indian Air Force acquired in 1985. Democratic India’s neutral stance in various international issues coupled with defense majors’ interest in doing business with countries of peaceful nature attracts defense manufacturers to exploit Indian defense market.