South Asia’s biggest airshow kicks off in India on Wednesday, where global armament firms will be vying for multibillion-dollar contracts from the world’s biggest importer of weapons.
India launched the biannial Aero India event in 1996, three years before a mini-war with Pakistan prompted New Delhi to go on a global shopping spree for tens of billions of dollars worth of hardware to equip its million-strong military.
A total of 78 countries have confirmed their attendance, while firms from 27 of them will showcase their products at the five-day show in Bangalore, the hub of India’s aviation and information-technology industries.
India’s state-run Hindustan Aeronautics, which signed a deal with Russia in 2010 worth US$30 billion to jointly produce 250 to 300 fifth-generation fighter jets, says it hopes to ink major contracts during the show.
Seattle-based Boeing Co last year pipped its rivals to provide India with 37 attack and heavy-lift helicopters worth more than US$1 billion. Negotiations are currently underway.
Such negotiations are not a guarantee of sale in Indian defense deals, which are often held up by administrative problems and red tape.
In February last year, India chose France’s Dassault Aviation as the preferred bidder in a US$12 billion deal for 126 fighter jets, but talks are still underway with no progress expected this financial year. Other deals still awaiting a green light include a US$600 million contract to supply 197 helicopters to the army, which was scrapped in 2007 after being awarded to the European manufacturer Eurocopter.
The US will provide the largest contingent of companies at the show, with 67, marking growing ties between the two countries, the chief organizer said.
France, Israel and Russia — India’s biggest arms supplier — also have a large presence at the show, Indian Defense Production Secretary R.K. Mathur said, adding that Pakistan had not been invited.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not