A U.S. Embassy cable titled ‘Scenesetter For USD(P) Flournoy's Visit To India' sent on October 29, 2009 to the State Department under the name of Ambassador Tim Roemer presents a list of military equipment that the United States should try and sell India. Against each item, a dollar value is mentioned.
Near term sales opportunities include:
Indian Air Force
Sensor Fuzed Weapons (SFW) — LOA expected shortly for 510 SFW for the IAF. LOA had been on hold pending EUM resolution (FMS, 379M USD)*.
Harpoon Missiles — LOA for 20 air-launched Harpoons passed to the IAF who requested the paragraph containing EEUM requirements be contained in a classified annex similar to EUM text. DSCA has accommodated the change and we expect a revised LOA shortly (FMS, 74M USD).
C-130J — We expect the IAF to amend the existing FMS contract for C-130Js to add six additional aircraft in 2010 (FMS, 800M USD)*.
C-17-USAF/IA is actively working with the IAF to develop an LOR for 10 C-17s. We expect the LOA to be signed in 2010 (FMS, 4B USD)*.
F-125IN Jet Engines — Honeywell is offering the F125IN engine as an upgrade for the IAF Jaguars. This competition for 306 engines is expected to take place in 2010 (DCS, 4.3B USD).
GE-414 Engines — GE is offering to provide 148 engines for the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). Competition in 2010 (DCS, 800M USD)*.
Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft — The Boeing F-18IN and the Lockheed F-16IN are among the six competitors to produce 126 IAF fighter aircraft. Flight trials have begun and the IAF technical evaluation is due to MOD in the summer of 2010 (FMS, 10B USD).
Heavy Lift Helicopter — The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is competing to provide the IAF 15 helicopters (DCS, 1B USD).
Attack Helicopter — The Boeing AH-64 Apache is competing for a contract for 22 helicopters (DCS/FMS, 1B USD).
Indian Navy
Network Centric Operations Prototype — Raytheon was the low bidder for this system, but Israeli competitors have requested a review of Raytheon's bid. Although Raytheon was some 20M USD below the next lowest bid, Raytheon is concerned the Indian Navy will be forced to reissue the RFP (DCS, 29M
USD).
Multi-Role Helicopter — Sikorsky (S-70B) and Lockheed (MH-60R) are competing to provide 16 helicopters for the Indian Navy. The announcement of competitors moving forward to flight trials is expected momentarily (FMS, 1B USD).
Indian Army
M-777 Light Weight 155MM Howitzer — LOA in development for 145 M-777 155MM Howitzers (FMS, 900M USD).
Javelin Anti-Tank Guided Missiles — The Indian Army is actively developing an LOR for 9,000 Javelin missiles. We demonstrated these missiles during exercise YUDH ABHYAS (FMS, 1.4B USD)*.
Patriot PAC3 — In 2008 the Indian Army sent the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) an RFP for a Medium Range Surface to Air Missile modeled on the Patriot. The USG did not respond and the Indian Army cancelled the RFP because they wanted the Patriot. Currently the ENDP process is ongoing for a classified briefing requested by the Indian Army. We believe an offer to sell Patriot would be well received by the Indian Army and taken as a sign that the US has made a political decision to offer India advanced military technology (FMS, 2B USD).
[NB: FMS stands for foreign military sales, a system of sale in which negotiations are handled directly between the US government and the purchasing country. Asterisked items have since been finalized or are actively in the process]
[ Extract from cable 232002: secret, sent by U.S. Embassy on October 29, 2009]
(This article is a part of the series "The India Cables" based on the US diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu via Wikileaks.)
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