India launched the biannual Aero India event in 1996. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
India launched the biannual Aero India event in 1996, three years before a mini-war with Pakistan prompted New Delhi to go on a global shopping spree for tens of billions of dollars worth of hardware to equip its million-strong military.
A total of 78 countries have confirmed their attendance, while companies from 27 of them will showcase their latest products at the five-day show in Bangalore, the hub of India's aviation, space and IT industries.
India's state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), which signed a deal with Russia in 2010 worth $30 billion to jointly produce 250 to 300 fifth-generation fighter jets, says it hopes to ink major contracts during the show.
"A number of memorandum of understandings in the pipeline are likely to be signed at the airshow," a senior HAL source said without elaborating.
Seattle-based Boeing last year pipped its rivals to provide India with 37 attack and heavy-lift helicopters worth more than one billion dollars. Negotiations are currently underway.
Such negotiations are not a guarantee of sale in Indian defence deals, which can be excruciatingly slow and are often held up by administrative problems and red tape.
India in February last year chose Dassault Aviation of France as the preferred bidder in a $12 billion deal for 126 fighter jets, but talks are still underway with no progress expected this financial year.
Other deals still awaiting a green light include a $600 million contract to supply 197 helicopters to the Indian army, which was scrapped in 2007 after being awarded to the European manufacturer Eurocopter.
The helicopter unit of aerospace giant EADS in 2010 resubmitted a bid for the same deal, with Russia's Kamov also in the running.
The United States will provide the largest contingent of companies at the show, with 67, marking growing ties between the two countries, the chief organiser said in New Delhi.
France, Israel and Russia - India's biggest arms supplier - also have a large presence at the show, said India's Defence Production Secretary RK Mathur, adding that Pakistan had not been invited.
Mathur said China, which fought a brief but bitter war with India over a border dispute in 1962, was likely to attend.
"China has been invited for the show as a formal letter has been sent to them," he said.
Israeli state-run armament firms are scouting to sell unmanned aerial vehicles to bolster India's modest fleet of surveillance drones, some of which are used in the country's struggle against Maoist rebels.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in March 2011 said India received nine percent of global arms transfers from 2006 to 2010, making it the world's largest importer of weapons.
Russian armaments accounted for 82 per cent of Indian military imports, the global arms transfer monitor said.
COMMENTS (11)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1731570357-0/elon-musk-(1)1731570357-0-165x106.webp "article")
-(1)1717678110-0/Kendrick-(1)-(1)1717678110-0-165x106.webp "article")
1732445375-0/Untitled-design-(9)1732445375-0-270x192.webp "sinkhole shuts victoria s great alpine road")
@Nauman:
Check World Bank's website and recent UN MDG reports. Poverty in India is gonna come down to 22% and poverty in Pakistan has already reached 43%, as per Asian Development Bank's estimate. Years of high growth in India and low growth in Pakistan has taken its toll.
What do you have to say now?
400 million Indians living (starving) on less than $1 a day........Indian armed forces are stealing from their own poor!
the theory of spending money on education, schools and hospitals etc is all right but they all would mean nothing if one's defense isn't where it should be, especially when one exists in a hostile surrounding..india and pakistan arent exactly friends and pakistan govt's continual support for jihad in kashmir and elsewhere in india is not leaving india with many options but to invest into buying these fancy war toys...plz donot cite india's involvement in baluchistan coz it doesnot exists...if it does, why hasn't the pakistani govt given evidence of it to the world and to india? the evidence only exists for the local crowd coz with them, it cannot be challenged to be false...stop being fooled my pak brothers...
Waste of money, spend it on schools and hospitals instead.
I dont think india is just buying weapons, in facts most of the deals india is negotiating comes with technology transfer! In future india has to stop purchasing weapons and spend more on education and health.
I'm agree qwertyui Pakistan should definetly try it's missile. But can someone tell me about which jet fighters are strongest Pakistans or Indians? I think India is trying to make their defense stonger. But wacht us we are fighting USA's war and are in many troubles.
just an observation-------armies all over the world want to play with shiny new toys, making a scene like little children when we say no, it is time to tell them to play with the toys they have, NO MORE TOYS.
pakistan should test its latest missile as a reply
with so much of buying and producing and testing our defence expenditure remains at 2.5% of gdp dats is about 50 billion dollars ........ and i think it shouldn't cross over 2.5%........ no need actually....