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Tejas MK2 will be armed with an Israeli air-to-ground missile Crystal Maze or Raptor is developed for the Indian market with a range of 100 km, weighing 1,100 kg that carries 80 kg warhead. It was developed in the year 2003-04.

The Indian fighter will receive more weapons from Israel, such as the SPICE bomb by Rafael. The SPICE Family of stand-off, autonomous, air-to-surface weapon systems enables precision, high-volume strikes in GPS-denied areas.

The cruise missile that will improve the combat capability of the Indian fighter is SCALP EG, which is made by MBDA. The warhead that carries this missile is 450 kg. The missile hits targets at a distance of up to 560 km. It is used in the Tornado, Saab Gripen, Dassault Mirage-2000, and Dassault Rafale aircraft.

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The Mistral has a maximum intercept range of 6.5 kilometers and can be used to take out hostile Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and helicopters.

The Mistral has two launchers each carrying two missiles and it is already integrated into India’s Rudra helicopter and Light Combat Helicopter.

Under the licensing agreement MBDA will transfer the equipment and knowledge to Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) for establishing the facility that will start operation in the current fiscal year.

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The Mistral has a maximum intercept range of 6.5 kilometers and can be used to take out hostile Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and helicopters.

The Mistral has two launchers each carrying two missiles and it is already integrated into India’s Rudra helicopter and Light Combat Helicopter.

Under the licensing agreement MBDA will transfer the equipment and knowledge to BDL for establishing the facility that will start operation in the current fiscal year.

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Johnson said the defense cooperation pact would boost procurement across several areas, but offered few details during a press conference wrapping up the two-day visit to India. The trip was aimed principally at progressing talks about a free trade deal between the nations.

But Johnson said the two countries would seek closer defense procurement “to meet threats across land, sea and air, space and cyber, including partnering on new fighter jet technology [and] maritime technologies to detect and respond to threats in the oceans.”

The reference to a fighter technology partnership likely relates to British efforts to bring India onboard its sixth-generation Tempest Future Combat Air System program.

The program, launched by the British in 2018, has been the subject of talks with India for some time as part of a broader push to attract international partners into development of a combat jet with an in-service date of around the middle of the next decade.

Britain is already partnering with Italy and Sweden in the technology development effort and recently agreed to cooperate with Japan on sensor and propulsion systems.

BAE Systems, Leonardo, MBDA, Rolls-Royce and Saab are leading the early phases of the technology development program.

A statement issued by the British High Commission in India said both leaders “noted cooperation in key areas of strategic collaboration including modern fighter aircraft and jet engine advanced core technology.”

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in the statement he “welcomed the UK announcement of an ‘open general export license’ [in defense] to facilitate technology engagement with India, and the open opportunity for India to participate in the UK’s aviation and naval shipbuilding programs.”

On the maritime front, the two sides have agreed to partner on electric propulsion capability.

Johnson said the arrangement would boost Indian efforts to increase the percentage of defense procurement manufactured locally.

“We have agreed to a new and expanded defense and security partnership, a decades-long commitment that will not only forge tighter bonds between us, but support your goal of Make in India,” he said, referring to India’s drive for greater domestic manufacturing in the defense sector.

India is one of the world’s largest importers of defense technology, but it’s a market dominated by Russia, which accounts for more than 50% of inward sales.

India has come under criticism from the UK and US over the refusal by Modi to condemn the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, but the issue appeared to be sidelined during the talks between the two sides.

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“The total number of offset contracts in which the vendors have defaulted/non-performed offset obligations during the last five years is 21, with a non-performed amount of $2.24 billion till December 31, 2021,” junior defence minister Ajay Bhatt said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

“Action is taken against the defaulting/non-performing vendors by imposing penalties after following the laid down procedures. The same has been completed in 16 contracts with levying of penalty amounting to $43.14 million till December 31, 2021. During the last five years, offset claims worth $2.64 billion have been submitted in 47 offset contracts,” he added.

The MoD had put around a dozen US, French, Russian and Israeli firms on a watch-list and warned them for failure to fulfil their offsets obligations.

Since then, some of these companies have paid the penalties to get out of the watch-list. Among them is missile-maker MBDA, which is the weapons package supplier for the Rafale jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation, in the Euro 7.8 billion contract inked with France in September 2016.

India, apart from the inter-governmental agreement with France and supply protocols for the fighters and weapons, had also inked a major offsets contract with Dassault and a smaller one with its partner MBDA. Under the deal, 50% of the contract value (around Rs 30,000 crore) has to be ploughed back to India as offsets or re-investments.

Overall, the MoD has inked around 60 offset contracts, with over $13 billion to be discharged from 2008 to 2027. But as per a parliamentary report, only $3.7 billion was discharged by the vendors till April 2021, of which $2.16 billion has been accepted in audit and the balance claims are under “clarification or examination”.

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“The contract was signed in December 2020 and the equipment was delivered by December 2021. This includes 24 launchers, 216 missiles and testing equipment,” one of the sources said.

The procurement was done through the Vice Chiefs emergency financial powers given to the Services for the first time after the Balakot air strike in February 2019 and further extended after the standoff with China in Eastern Ladakh in May 2020. Under this, Services can procure weapons systems up to Rs 300 crores on an urgent basis without any further clearances.

In the backdrop of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine and the Western sanctions, India and Russia are working out modalities to utilise the Rupee-Rouble route in a large way for trade and payments. The Ministry is also assessing the impact it would have on the timely execution of deals as well as steady supplies of spares and support.

The larger VSHORAD deal which began in 2010 and saw several rounds of trials and re-trials is still pending.

This deal which was close to conclusion is now under review as part of the overall relook at all direct import deals by the Defence Ministry. Deliberations are still continuing on the larger VSHORAD deal, another defence source said.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) for VSHORAD was issued in October 2010 for over 5,000 missiles, 258 single launchers and 258 multi-launchers. Five contenders responded and eventually three made it to the trials – MBDA of France, Rosoboronexport of Russia and SAAB of Sweden. Eventually all three companies were declared technically compliant in 2017 and Igla-S was declared the lowest bidder in November 2018.

While the benchmark price arrived at by the Army was just over $2 bn, Rosoboronexport’s bid was much lower at around $1.47 bn, SAAB at about $2.6 bn, and MBDA at about $3.68 bn. This led to much deliberation within the Ministry as the Russian bid was much lower compared to the benchmark price. The deal also saw several allegations of deviations in procedures with some of the vendors sending protest letters.

As per requirements, the VSHORAD should have a maximum range of 6 km, altitude of 3 km along with all-weather capability and will replace the existing Igla in service which is in urgent need of replacement. VSHORAD is the soldier’s last line of defence against enemy combat aircraft and helicopters in the multilayered air defence network.

In addition to the Igla-S, the Army variant of the Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) being jointly developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) completed trials earlier this month and is now ready for induction. The maiden launch of MRSAM Army Version was conducted in December 2020.

Air Defence functions in three levels – gun/missile system, medium range, and high range. Within this the Air Defence guns are of two types, AD Gun Missile system, AD self propelled guns. The Army is looking for AD guns in both the categories. In the medium segment, it has the indigenous Akash SAM while MRSAM fits in the high range.

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