India 'losing interest' in Maitri SA-SAM joint venture
Rahul Bedi, New Delhi - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
17 September 2014
The Akash system was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation based on legacy Russian designs. Source: IHS/Patrick Allen
Key Points
- Indian officials appear to be losing interest in long-delayed plans to co-develop a short-range surface-to-air missile system with European missile house MBDA
- Recent acquisitions of the locally developed Akash system suggest the Maitri SR-SAM is unlikely to enter service
India's long-pending USD5 billion programme to co-develop the Maitri short-range surface-to-air missile (SR-SAM) system with MBDA is almost certain to be delayed further following the approval of alternative options by the country's military.
Instead of
for Maitri, under negotiation since 2007, the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Army have decided on the locally developed Akash system, official sources said.
Military officials told
IHS Jane's that given the emphasis the new BJP government places on materiel self-sufficiency, the SR-SAM programme, like several other defence projects, will focus on locally designed rather than imported technology and systems.
They said each Akash missile costs around INR30 million (USD491,0000) - less than half the cost of a similar missile imported from the United States or Europe or even co-developed with foreign assistance.
As a result, over the past few months the Indian Army and IAF have concluded a series of validation trials of the truck-mounted, ramjet-propelled Akash ahead of deploying it along the disputed northeastern border with China.
The IAF has placed orders for eight Akash squadrons - with plans for more than double this number - while the Indian Army plans on initially inducting four regiments.
Akash will replace the Soviet-era Strela-10M (SA-13 'Gopher'), Kvadrat (SA-6 'Gainful'), and OSA-AKM (SA-8b 'Gecko' Mod 1) systems in service with the Indian Army and IAF respectively for over four decades.
In July French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius expressed concern to Indian Defence Minister Arun Jaitley over delays in the Maitri programme. A memorandum of understanding was signed in 2013 after six years of talks between MBDA and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation, apportioning the work-share between the two sides, but awaited final confirmation by the MoD.
Meanwhile, delays in confirming Maitri's shipborne variant, Revati, led the Indian Navy (IN) to dispatch a request for information (RfI) for a new system to indigenous and overseas companies on 1 August.
The RfI was sent locally to Ashok Leyland, Bharat Forge, Larsen & Toubro, and Tata Power SED from the private sector and the state-owned Bharat Electronics Limited and the Ordnance Factory Board. Overseas vendors included Israel Aerospace Industries, MBDA, Nexter, Rafael, Saab, Thales, Russia's KBP Tula, and South Korea's Doosan Group.
The RfI is sparse on detail, but the IN's requirement is estimated to be 25-30 SR-SAM systems for installation on its range of newly commissioned and awaited frigates and corvettes.
It also does not clarify whether the IN wants to opt for the outright procurement of SR-SAMs or alternately to go for the 'Buy and Make' or 'Buy and Make (Indian)' alternatives under the MoD's Defence Procurement Procedure.
The former category entails the weapon systems purchase followed by licenced production while the latter involves a transfer of technology to an Indian manufacturer to build it locally.
Related article: France pushes India to move on Maitri SR-SAM programme