India AF Buys More Hawks

[ORAC]

Defense News: Indian AF Seeks 20 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers (http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120914/DEFREG03/309140005/Indian-AF-Seeks-20-Hawk-Advanced-Jet-Trainers?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE)

NEW DELHI — BAE Systems of the United Kingdom has been asked by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to supply 20 more Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) at a cost of about $500 million.

“BAE Systems has received a Request for Proposal (RFP) from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) for a potential order to supply products and services for the manufacture of 20 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) aircraft,” said the BAE Systems statement.

Earlier, BAE contracted the sale of 66 Hawk trainers in 2004 and 57 additional Hawk trainers in 2010. If the latest order is contracted, the total numbers of Hawk trainers supplied to India would be 143. The order for the purchase of 57 Hawk aircraft was signed during the 2010 visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron to New Delhi.

The 20 Hawk AJTs will replace the Kiran MkII aircraft with the Indian Air Force, which were grounded last year...............

[mlc]

Remind me again how many the UK have operational!!

[Ogre]

Seeing as Hawk production at Brough has effectively ceased to exist, the only place the IAF will get their Hawks built is under license at HAL, in India.

So Indian money paying for Indian workers, with a cut for BAE

[Lima Juliet]

So will HAL produce the Hawks to replace the Red Arrows' T1s? If indeed there are to be any replacements?

[Bob Viking]

Do keep up fellas. BAE will be building more Hawks as we speak for the RSAF.
BV

[Bob Viking]

Well if you believe the news (and BAE) they'll be built in the UK.
At Brough.
BV:hmm:
BBC News - BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia sign £1.9bn Hawk jet deal (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18173779)

[Rigga]

Hawk production to ramp up at Warton?

Plenty of (aero)space there...

[Dengue_Dude]

Well if you believe the news (and BAE) they'll be built in the UK.
At Brough.

VERY unlikely to be built at Brough, more likely to be Warton, especially as Typhoon production is a little slow.

[Just This Once...]

Why is Typhoon slow, I thought we were trying to accelerate our build up?

[ORAC]

Indian Air Force rejects British Advanced Hawk aircraft (http://www.defensenews.com/articles/indian-air-force-rejects-british-advanced-hawk-aircraft)

NEW DELHI — The Indian Air Force says it will not make an acquisition request for the British Advanced Hawk trainer aircraft.

The decision comes after the Ministry of Defence asked the service not request the aircraft following allegations that British company Rolls-Royce bribed officials of India's state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited between 2005 and 2009 to secure orders for engines to power the British Hawk 132 advanced jet trainers meant for the Indian Air Force. "We will not make any formal request for the Advanced Hawk to HAL, and the program will be officially shelved. This is because the MoD does not want [to] give additional orders for engines to tainted Rolls-Royce for the Advanced Hawk program," a senior IAF official said. "IAF has no intentions to place any order for the Advanced Hawk trainers."

British company BAE Systems and HAL signed a memorandum of understanding in 2015 to fund the development and production of a combat role-capable trainer to be marketed for both the domestic and export market. "Lack of any orders for the Advanced Hawk trainers to be supplied by BAE Systems of UK will make it difficult for the commercial agreement with HAL to proceed further," a top MoD official said.

The Advanced Hawk made its debut at Aero India 2017 in Bangalore earlier this month. "The Advanced Hawk has been in the work for two years under a unique model with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) and BAE Systems pooling resources to develop a faster, more agile Hawk that can also carry smart weapons," said Dave Corfield, BAE Systems head of Hawk India. HAL has built avionics, a multifunction display system and wings for the Advanced Hawk aircraft, Corefield added.........

Last month, a British court was told that Rolls-Royce allegedly engaged middlemen to help the company secure deals in India for engine production for the Hawk trainer between 2005 and 2009. Indian law does not allow the involvement of middlemen in securing defense deals. No MoD official would comment on whether there is a proposal to blacklist Rolls-Royce, and no Rolls-Royce executives were available for comment.

In November 2016, an internal MoD report concluded that Rolls-Royce paid bribes to secure orders for Adour Mk aero engines for the Hawk advanced jet trainer being produced by HAL under license from BAE Systems.

India had contracted 123 Hawk Mk-132 advanced jet trainers from BAE Systems for the IAF and the Navy.

[Arclite01]

this just sounds like any old excuse to not buy something they never wanted to commit to in the first place................

Just the latest in a number of defence deals that the Indian forces have backed away from at the last minute.............

Arc

[Heathrow Harry]

there was soemthing in "Flight" this week pointing out thatthe IAF is staring at mass obselence of most of its fleet and they have to find a way of buying stuff without these ridiculous drawn-out procurement programmes

[Davef68]

So were the 20 touted in 2012 ever ordered/delivered?

(lso, who else but RR could have supplied Adours for the Hawk?)

[Heathrow Harry]

In June 2016

"HAL is currently producing the last of the 123 Hawk Mk132s that India ordered in various batches through 2010 (http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2010-08-20/more-hawks-india-bae-eyes-iraq-and-poland)."

So it looks like no.........

[MPN11]

From Post #18...following allegations that British company Rolls-Royce bribed officials of India's state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited between 2005 and 2009 to secure orders for engines to power the British Hawk 132 advanced jet trainers... Bribery? East of Suez? (or indeed West of Suez?) Shirley Knott?

Was this erroneous bribery, with the brown envelopes not going to the right people?

[ORAC]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rolls-royce-and-bae-systems-face-investigation-in-india-lwjjz967f

Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems face investigation in India

India’s foremost investigative agency has filed a criminal complaint against Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems over historic deals to supply fighter jets to the country.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleged that, between 2003 and 2012, the two British firms had engaged in “criminal conspiracy” to “cheat” the government of India over deals to manufacturer dozens of BAE Hawk 115 aircraft, which used Rolls-Royce engines.

The case is based on the findings of an investigation launched by the CBI back in 2016, according to a federal police document dated May 23, and seen by Reuters. It forms part of the CBI’s ongoing investigation into historic bribery and corruption allegations.

The document reportedly alleged that the manufacturers of the trainer jet paid commissions in violation of Indian defence contract rules to middlemen who helped them get the contracts by exerting “undue influence” on Indian government officials. It also said that Rolls-Royce India and its officials entered into a criminal conspiracy with unknown officials of India’s defence ministry and two middlemen between 2003 and 2012 for contracts linked to the trainer jets.

Rolls-Royce said the allegations being investigated were disclosed back in 2017, when it paid a £497 million fine to Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to settle a case involving transactions with countries including China, India and Thailand…….

In its response, BAE told Reuters it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation. India’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.….

The filing of the document is the first step towards a formal trial.…..

[Asturias56]

From Post #18Bribery? East of Suez? (or indeed West of Suez?) Shirley Knott?

Was this erroneous bribery, with the brown envelopes not going to the right people?


Ahh India - where a Govt Minister was leaving a factory and the owner approached him and said "Minister, you seem to have dropped your wallet - and it contains a lakh of dollars!"

"That's not my wallet - MY wallet contained 2 lakhs of dollars" :E

[Martin the Martian]

As I recall, it took seventeen years from the IAF selecting the Hawk to the contract for the first batch. Makes UK defence procurement look the model of efficiency.