Saab ends the partnership with Adani Group to manufacture  Gripen E fighter in India

Saab is one of seven global aerospace giants that are competing in the tender, estimated to be worth over Rs 60,000-70,000 crore for 114 medium multirole fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Swedish aerospace and defense company, Saab, which had entered into a partnership with Adani Group to manufacture the Gripen E fighter in India, said on Monday that it was no longer going ahead with that agreement. Saab and Adani Group had announced their partnership on August 31, 2017. The agreement between the two would come into effect if Saab were selected as the foreign partner, to supply the Gripen E fighter.

Saab is one of seven global aerospace giants that are competing in the tender, estimated to be worth over Rs 60,000-70,000 crore for 114 medium multirole fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF). Besides Saab, these include Boeing with its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (US), Lockheed Martin with its F-21 (US), Dassault with the Rafale (France), Eurofighter Typhoon (Europe), and two fighters from Russia: the MiG-35 and the Sukhoi-35.

Asked who Saab would partner with for building the Gripen E in India, Palmberg said that provided the Indian defense MINISTRY allowed Saab to hold 74 percent of the manufacturing entity — which was permitted under the foreign direct investment cap on defense and aerospace manufacture — it would opt to manufacture the fighters in a company in which Saab owned 74 percent.

The defense ministry has issued a request for information and is understood to be evaluating responses from the original equipment manufacturers. The ministry’s next step will be to draw up an acceptance of necessity and then to issue a request for proposal.

This fighter acquisition has been necessitated by the cancellation of an earlier fighter tender, issued in 2007 for 126 medium multirole combat aircraft. That ended in the government-to-government purchase from Dassault of 36 Rafale fighters. However, this left the IAF with a serious shortfall of fighter aircraft, necessitating the fresh tender for 114 medium fighters.