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Subject: The F-35 is offered to India!
jessmo_24    8/3/2011 12:19:28 PM
The Biggest aviation news of the week! and not 1 post. By Rajeev Sharma The visiting United States Secretary of State Hillary, who held the second Indo-US Strategic Dialogue with her Indian counterpart S M Krishna in New Delhi on July 19, failed to give any concrete assurance to India on its concerns about Nuclear Suppliers' Group's recent hardening of ENR (Enrichment and Reprocessing) technology transfer terms ... KEY EXCERPT: Clinton is understood to have made a strong pitch for more US military sales to India, especially in the wake of American companies recently losing out in the race for a $ 10.4 billion order by the Indian Air Force for 126 fighter aircraft. She expressed her country's willingness to sell state-of-the-art F 35 warplanes to India at "unbelievable" prices. The Americans are understood to have asked the Indian government to open its purse strings for the Lockheed built fifth generation super stealth F-35 Lightning the basic model of which is being made available to India for $ 65 million apiece. The Indian defence establishment would naturally find the offer too good to be true as much inferior fourth generation French Rafale is priced at $ 85 million and Eurofighter Typhoon (also a fourth generation aircraft) at $ 125 million apiece. The American offer signals American desperation for capturing a big pie of the highly lucrative Indian defence market, especially after two top American fighter aircraft manufacturers - Lockheed (F-16) and Boeing (F-18) - got eliminated in the recent Indian MMRCA deal worth $ 10.4 billion. More clarity would have to emerge on the proposed F 35 Lightning sales to India. 1st we have speculation that the mmrca MIGHT BE DROPPED!? AND NOW THIS!? More A keen watcher of these developments is Lockheed Martin, whose F-16IN Super Viper was rejected by the IAF. A visiting Lockheed Martin executive told Business Standard that the fifth-generation F-35 Lightening II would become a real option for India if the MMRCA procurement was scrapped. “We did not offer the F-35 for the MMRCA contract because it exceeded the Indian specifications; the fighter was not yet ready for the kind of flight testing specified in the tender; and because the US government had not yet approved it for release to India to include transfer of technology as specified in the RfP,” said Orville Prins, Lockheed Martin’s Vice President for Business Development. Six years down the line, these conditions have changed. Prins now points out that, with Lockheed Martin set to build 20 fighters per month, i.e. 240 per year, “we could be in a position to supply India with its first F-35s by 2016, contingent upon many additional factors including US governmental approval that would affect this timing.” Asked for the cost of the F-35, Lockheed Martin estimates it “in the mid-60s”, i.e. somewhere between $60-70 million for the conventional version of the fighter. This would be the cost of a full-up, operational configuration with all the high-tech sensors that are integrated internally in a 5th generation, stealthy aircraft. Added to this cost would be the added expenses of training, technology transfer (ToT), manufacturing infrastructure, etc, which would significantly raise the overall cost of buying 126 F-35s.
 
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YelliChink       8/3/2011 3:10:07 PM
Good to know that at least one foreign policy is on the right track.
 
Pakistani government, aka the Pakistani military and ISI, are using the Afg situation to leech off the West, particularly the US.
 
They (ISI and Paki mil) aren't double dealing with Taleban. They are the Taleban.
 
Let the Chinese have them. Indians are much better friend to have.
 
But good friend is hard to make, especially with bad credentials.
 
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Hamilcar21    !@#$%^&*() Henry Kissinger.   8/3/2011 3:22:07 PM


 

Let the Chinese have them. Indians are much better friend to have.

 

But good friend is hard to make, especially with bad credentials.

I hope you know why I wrote that.

H.


 
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YelliChink       8/3/2011 3:37:17 PM


I hope you know why I wrote that.

H.



Yes, I do know. He could have done worse, since the situation in the place used to be called Eastern Pakistan had the mark of Soviet Union all over the place.
 
And Kissinger is far from the evilest. He is still a level below what Brzezinski has achieved.
 
 
 
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phrank       8/3/2011 11:55:46 PM
How can they do the tech transfer they are wanting when we barely will give the codes to our closes allies. I think this is a non started to be honest.
 
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Hamilcar21       8/4/2011 1:14:53 AM







I hope you know why I wrote that.

H.





Yes, I do know. He could have done worse, since the situation in the place used to be called Eastern Pakistan had the mark of Soviet Union all over the place.

 

And Kissinger is far from the evilest. He is still a level below what Brzezinski has achieved.
 

 

True. I HATE that !@#$%^&*() 1%er incompetent idiot,  too.

H.



 
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