US to pressure India with "offsets"

Posted on: May. 12th, 2006 || Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

US to pressure India with

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: Boeing's dogfight for the 126-combat jet India contract involves half a dozen arms makers across the world. But the first scrape begins at home in the US. When Condoleezza Rice, dubbed the 'warrior princess' in peacenik quarters, offered India both F/A-18 Super Hornets and advanced F-16s, she set off a minor spat between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

(The four other contenders for the deal are Dassault Aviation of France with the Mirage 2000-V, SAAB of Sweden with the JAS-39 Gripen, RAC of Russia with the MiG-29 MRCA and the British-German-Italian-Spanish consortium with the Eurofighter Typhoon. With New Delhi slated to issue its Request for Proposal (RFP) sometime in the next few weeks, you will find a lot of these nationals in New Delhi's swank hotels and bars.)

Boeing and Lockheed, like all American arms makers, share an unusual relationship. They are rivals in a sense, but they also collaborate on many projects, such as the one for the F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter. The F/A-18 itself is a piecemeal jet the airframe is made by Boeing IDS and Northrup Grumman, the engine by General Electric and the radar by Hughes. Beneath the veneer of civility and cooperation, US arms companies are only too ready to shoot each other down without taking aim.

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