By Vikas Gupta
Defence News of India, 13 Feb 23
The day before the inauguration of the 14e Aero India 2023 – touted by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) as Asia’s largest aerospace and defense (A&D) exhibition – Bangalore is buzzing.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due to fly from his capital to India’s aerospace capital, Bengaluru, exhibitors are pulling out all the stops to make their screens look like this. Defense executives in sharp suits review their sales pitches; aircraft technicians tune their flying machines for maximum performance, while fighter pilots perform one last aerobatic rehearsal that makes daredevil commonplace.
The MoD can be satisfied with the attendance figures. 809 companies are exhibiting at Aero India 2023, of which 699 are Indian and 110 are foreign.
It is the biggest show ever organized by Aero India, said Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. Compared to the 23,000 square meters of exhibition space occupied by vendors at the previous Aero India in 2021, this edition sold 35,000 square meters.
The Aero India logo is everywhere, its slogan – “The track to a billion opportunities – eliminating any doubt about which country is the premium buyer. Each of the arms giants, called “original equipment manufacturers ” (OEM), pays homage to Atmanirbhar Bharat (autonomous India). But the numbers are more mixed.
Take planes from The Boeing Company. In the military aircraft category, India operates 11 C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, 22 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters (with six more on order), 15 CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopters, 12 P -8I Orions, three corporate VVIP jet aircraft and two “heads of state” aircraft. Each of them was purchased ready to be built by Boeing.
The same is true for civilian aircraft. Indian commercial airlines operate more than 150 Boeing aircraft, including the next-generation 737, 737 MAX, 757, 777 and 787 Dreamliner. Only a tiny fraction of them were built in India.
Despite this, progress has been made in supplying India.
“Boeing has strengthened its supply chain with more than 300 local companies in India and a joint venture to manufacture airframes for Apache helicopters and vertical fin structures for the 737 family of aircraft,” a statement from Boeing said. the society.
“The annual supply from India is over $1 billion. Boeing currently employs over 5,000 people in India and over 13,000 people work with its supply chain partners. The efforts of Boeing employees and nationwide commitment…impact more than 500,000 lives,” he says.
The Indigenous aircraft and defense technologies on display are primarily fielded by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The Indian pavilion showcases more than 330 products categorized into 12 areas, such as fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), missiles and strategic systems, engines, electronic warfare systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning and cyber systems.
The flagship DRDO products on display are: the 5e Generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mark 2, Akash, Astra, Helina, Nag and Pralay missiles, Kaveri dry engine prototype, Netra Airborne Early Warning and Control system.
Aero India 2023 will feature the flight debut of TAPAS-BH (Tactical Air Platform for Forward Surveillance – Beyond the Horizon), which is an indigenous Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV. TAPAS-BH will cover both static and aerial displays, with its live video streamed throughout the venue. TAPAS is DRDO’s solution to Tri-Service Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) requirements. It is capable of operating at altitudes up to 28,000 feet, on missions that can last over 18 hours.
Other companies, like Airbus, are using the expo as a high-visibility opportunity to recruit Indian employees. Calling it a “public meet-and-greet event aimed at recruiting engineering and information technology talent,” the company says applicants “can explore career opportunities in airframe design, avionics, aircraft systems simulation, data analysis, cybersecurity and cabin engineering”.
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Aero India 2023 will focus on “Made in India”
· Aatmanirbharta (autonomy) in aerospace will be the theme of the Indian defense industry
· The central theme of the India pavilion will be the development of a “fixed-wing platform”
· A full-scale Tejas fighter will be the central exhibit of the India Pavilion
· Components of a fixed-wing aircraft ecosystem will be displayed around the Tejas
· In addition, 115 companies will present 227 “Made in India” products.
· It will be Aero India’s largest ever, with 35,000 square meters of display space, compared to Aero India 2021’s 23,000 square meters
