It looks Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ dream has customers overseas. The recent in the line to offer a production facility in India is none other than the Swedish defence giant Saab who is eyeing a contract for IAF’s single-engine fighter jets. It has offered to set up one of the most advanced aircraft production facilities globally if its Gripen E multi-role jet wins the deal. The company has already finalised a blue-print for setting up the hub which will manufacture Gripen E for India and the global market besides having separate facilities to design, develop, modify and enhance new fighters for the future. Even the US defence major Lokheed Martin has offered to completely shift a F-16 production line to India for manufacture of the fighters. Saab had offered Gripen for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft deal which was eventually awarded to French Dassault’s Rafale. An official of Saab said the facility for India would include a dedicated Gripen Design Centre, a major production facility equipped with the latest manufacturing technologies and robotics systems, a radar and sensor centre, final assembly plus test and verification centres, among others. Notably, in 2007, the minimum requirement was put at 126 plus 63 options (189) but their acquisition process under the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition was scrapped in 2015 over price differences with the French Dassault whose Rafale was selected in 2012. The Government then opted for a small number of 36 aircraft, or two squadrons, last year under a direct Government-to-Government deal with France for nearly Euro 8 billion inclusive of about Euro 2.5 billion for India-specific modifications and weapons as part of the package. It is nearly 10 years since the MMRCA tender was floated, and understandably, many more of the older 1970s generation of Soviet origin aircraft have meanwhile faded away.
