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Novel Pitch
Eurofighter offers a novel mix to make its offer more attractive to IAF
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Munich: A few kilometers outside this city, known for the bloody ‘72 Olympics, green spaces and home to one of the world's top football club, lies Manching, the emerging site for an integrated complex of the next generation military systems, from space vehicles to underwater surveillance vehicles. But the main product at the EADS plant for the present is the Eurofighter, a four-nation initiative to develop and co-produce a fighter aircraft. It is also the focal point for visiting Indian journalists as EADS has pitched the Eurofighter for the Indian Air Force's under-evaluation tender for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).
With offsets queering the pitch in what otherwise would have been a straight forward commercial deal; all the six competitors in the fighter competition are forwarding novel mixes to make their offer more attractive. And Eurofighter is no exception. “We are in the build up for Tranche II. All Tranche I fighters to the participating air forces have been delivered. What we have here now are Tranche II aircraft in various stages of assembly,” says Wolfgang Gammel, his hand sweeping across the enormous hanger holding an unfinished inventory of fighters meant for as far away as Saudi Arabia. Some will take a short hop and join the German Air Force while others will do duty with the Spansih, Austrian, Italian and British Air Forces.
The Tranche II will make its maiden flight early this year and EADS has already started the flight tests. “The most promising phase will be the transition from Phase II to III. There will be new equipment since this is a dynamic programme. It might be interesting for Indian partner companies to jump in Phase II and III,” offers Wolfram Wolff, Head External Communications, EADS Military Air Systems. The partnership could then extend to designing and producing unmanned combat aerial vehicles. EADS' experience has been that partner countries have always been closely involved and gained in these cooperative ventures. They cite the example of Spain, the last country to join the Eurofighter programme. “It is up to India to decide which technology will suit it best. But when Spain joined, it only had the design capacity of small transport or propeller aircraft. It had limited capacity in jet aircraft. It could licence produce the F-18. Now, being a member of the Eurofighter community has boosted their capacity and lot of production takes place in Spain. Over 90 per cent of the money spent on the Eurofighter stays in Spain. Their skills of their workers and engineers has The skills of their workers and engineers have also increased,” observes Dr Christian Albert, Manager External Communications, Military Air Systems.
In India the company is scouting for partners who could help it discharge the offset obligation. “We are still in detailed discussions. It all depends on the expectations of partner companies; on our side we will bring small & medium enterprises (SMEs) to flagships. At the bottom of the pyramid we have 400 partner companies. When extended to companies working on ordnance and weapons like MBDA there could be 1,000 working on the [Eurofighter] project,” he added.
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