The partnership will compete with U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin in a two horse-race to win a potential order from India's military for single-engine jets that will be produced locally under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make-in-India' initiative. DH file photo
Swedish arms major Saab on Friday announced its collaboration with the Adani group to manufacture Gripen fighter jets in India for the Indian Air Force.
The Saab-Adani partnership is the second tie-up between big industrial houses, eyeing the lucrative contract after the Defence Ministry made public its plan to procure 100 more single-engine combat jets for the IAF.
Earlier US-based Lockheed Martin tied up with the Tata group and offered to shift its F-16 production line to India if a minimum order comes from the Defence Ministry. The Saab-Adani partnership also proposed an assembly line in India.
The collaboration was announced here by Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani group and Hakan Buskhe, chief executive officer and president of Saab AB.
The defence ministry is yet to issue a formal Request for Information to these companies on the contract. The only official document so far is a one-page IAF letter, seeking comments from the foreign vendors if they are willing to build a single-engine fighter aircraft in India in partnership with an Indian firm.
The manufacturing is planned under the Strategic Partnership policy, according to which the defence ministry is to shortlist the foreign vendors and identify the private firms that are equipped to build the aircraft. Then the joint venture will prepare the projects for evaluation.
The defence ministry is yet to down-select the foreign vendor and Indian partners for the project.
Asked what would happen if the Adani group is not chosen by the defence ministry, Buskhe said, “We believe the Adani group will sit as the strategic partner. We would not have taken the step unless we believed that the Adani group can be a partner.”
Queried on the Adani group's inexperience in the defence and aerospace sector, Ashish Rajvanshi, who heads the vertical pointed out that the business group did not have any past experience when it entered the port or the power sector.
“The new strategic partnership policy is an opportunity for the private players to complement and coexist with the defence public sector unit,” said the group's chairman Gautam Adani. He, however, did not take any questions from the media.
With the depleting squadron strength because of the phasing out of MiG-21 and MiG-27 jets, IAF is looking at the new proposal to make up for the numbers.