Off On Boeing’s Media Tour

Folks, I’m off to the U.S. for the next ten days for Boeing’s media tour 2012 as part of a group of Indian defence journalists. We’ll be visiting facilities and receiving briefings on equipment already contracted by the Indian military, including the P-8I Neptune and C-17 Globemaster-III, equipment currently competing in tenders yet to be decided (AH-64D Apache Block-III in the IAF’s attack helicopter bid and the CH-47 Chinook in its heavy copter competition), and equipment that’s been made available but not specifically competing yet, including the V-22 Osprey and Scan Eagle. I’ll post updates regularly from there. If there’s anything specific anyone wants to know, leave a comment here, and I’ll do my best. Have a good week!
Photo / U.S. Air Force

22 thoughts on “Off On Boeing’s Media Tour”

  1. Shiv if possible get some info regarding the companies participating in IAF 9 special mission aircrafts and othet US weapons on offer .And regarding the V22..India has shown interest in the aircraft primarily useful in very high altitudes…Like siachen.But recent crashes leaves a question mark on its safety??Want to know Boeings reaction on this..Good luck and happy journey

  2. Hi Shiv, when will the first C-17 arrive in India? Apart from 22 Apaches will the IAF order more? When will the follow on contract for 4 P-8I poseidons be signed.

    Another thing, I wanna know. Theres a buzz around that the Rafales will replace the MiG-21 and MiG-27. Now as far as I know, the Rafales are meant f
    or replacing the aging miG-21. And also the various newspapers stated that the Rafales will replace the
    MiG-21. There was no mention of MiG-27. 126
    Rafales will replace 200 MiG-21. How can they also
    replace the MiG-27? Pls ans about this and let me
    know. My email account is [email protected]

    I am new to this blog. And I am writing my first comment. So how r u gonna let me know.

  3. AH-64D Apache Block-III is already selected..r8??…n please update info on ch47 n v-22 osprey…whats their progress n whats their chance of winning the bid

  4. Shiv

    Not in the same context. But has there been any development on Indian Navy's LPD acquisition plan ? There were rumors around Italian San Giorgio Class, French Mistral, Korean Dokdo and Japanese Hyuga. Any concrete progress so far ?

  5. Could you find out when exactly the C-17 will be delivered (ie what month in 2013)?

    When Boeing expect the AH-64D and CH-47F deals to be signed?

    What sort of follow-on orders do Boeing expect for Apache and Chinook?

    And what camo schemes do Boeing expect for Apache and Chinook? ie standard dark green used by most operators or the grey used by IAF used for current attack helos and heavy lifters in IAF.

    What stage is the V-22 offer to India at? And what potential users are there ie IAF, IN etc?

    Does Boeing have any plans to devlop/offer IN a AEW version of V-22?

  6. Joy@4:46

    So I guess pakistan is the one who we seek advise from? Since when?

    Comparing Pak US relationship to US India is apples vs oranges. Pak US relationship only exists because there is no other alternative at this moment. For US to support it's forces in Afghanistan, it needs Pakistan. The day US pulls out of Afg, they will stop paying any attention to Pakis, especially because Pakis have no money to spend on any US weapons. That day is not too far.

  7. Shiv,
    Please ask following few technical questions to Boeing officials..to know the correct status of thease planes in terms of their capability.

    1.The difference between P-8A (US version) and P-8I(IN version)..though we know that Indian version has a MAD gear/sensor where as US version does not have this(due to increased % of composite and Non-Magnetic materials in modern Submarine Hull) and it seems India opted for a Different version of radar(very vital equipment of any LRMR platform) than US version P-8A has…not sure if that Radar was denied for export so India had to opt different version.

    2. Similarly what about Apaches…will the exactly same equipments and sensors(that are fitted in US version) will be fitted in to the Indian version of Attack Helo ?(Including Apache Radar version.)?

    Have a safe journey.

    ———————–
    Journalists are Eyes and Ears of our common Citizen.

  8. @anon 8.45AM

    When it comes to playing the US, no one is as smart as the Pakis. Indians….not even close. Hats off to the Pakis, they milked the Americans like nobody's business.

    We may not like the Pakis but we could definitely take a few pages out of their book.

    As for the US….. they are far worse as friends then they are as enemies. Dont get carried away by all the friendly diplospeak. There is nothing special about US-India relation. They have no concern or sympathy for all the terror attacks we faced. Never had. Remember how India offered complete support after 9/11 and US simply walked over us to suck up to the Pakis. What make you think that would never happen again. For last half a century US and Pak have been allies. Even today US is pumping billions of dollars in to Pakistan while paying lip service to India about "strategic alliance". I call BS on that one.

  9. @ Purbayan Roy

    Rafales initial number is 126 but is likely to go upto 200 later on. I believe Rafales and Tejas together will be filling up the numbers for the phased out Mig 21, 27s and jaguars. Even if the numbers are lower they dont necessarily represent lowering in capability.

    Mig 21s and 27s are at a lowest end in terms of range and payload. Rafales are much bigger and heavier aircrafts and can actually equal the performace of 3 Mig 21s quite easily. Not to forget we would be adding more Su-30MKIs during the whole time…another heavier platform. And by end of the decade we should be adding FGFAs to the inventory. So I dont see anything wrong with IAF future force projections

  10. Joy@8:45

    So India gave complete support to the US after 9/11. What do you mean by that? Was India prepared to attack Afghanistan? Was India going to give them a land route to re-supply American troops? Was India prepared to send it's forces to Afghanistan? And what do you mean by US has no sympathy… what are they supposed to do? Fight on our behalf? The US was attached and they returned the favor to the region where the attack was coordinated from. We could have done the same thing after Kargil, after Parliament was attacked, after Mumbai train bombings, after 26/11? The fact is our politicians do not have a back-bone. All they can say is something like this will not be tolerated again and the next time we will respond with force (that has never happened). Even in Kargil, we refused to cross the LOC, the end result we probably lost more soldiers than what we may have otherwise. What the hell, the Pakis are still occupying one or two posts even after kargil is a so called victory for India. American sympathy has nothing to do with anything. If we took the fight to the enemy the their first attack, one can argue the other follow-on attacks would have never happened. The fault lies with the Indian Spineless System, please do not point the finger at the American, or even the Pakis for that matter. Pakis have only done what they could while knowing that they are likely to get away with it. If we did something to prove them wrong, chances are they will not repeat that mistake again.

  11. Hi Shiv, just saw your article on Indian equipments in P-8I. Similarly can you also find out what other Indian made equipment maybe fitted in C-17's, the Apache's, etc if any. An info on indigenous components on these purchase's will be very interesting. Thanks and best of luck.

  12. Some of our bloggers openly against the US equipments. But one thing for sure is that there is no alternative to C17,p8i and they are unique in their fields.

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