rickusn

Whicchever way Chile chooses to go is a win for them. :

More Royal Navy frigates for Chile



The strong international price of copper for the second year running has bolstered Chile’s coffers and a percentage of that additional income is earmarked for military equipment purchases including several Royal Navy frigates, German Leopard tanks and refurbished F-16 fighters.



Excess income from copper sales abroad represented last year an additional two billion US dollars for the Chilean government and for the military who are legally entitled to a percentage, almost 700 million US dollars in these last two years, although part of it has already been spent in cancelling debts.
President Ricardo Lagos and the commanders of the three services agreed this week that those funds will be used in the coming nine years (until 2014) to keep advancing with the modernization process of the Chilean Armed Forces.

The shopping list includes 20 to 28 refurbished F-16 fighter bombers belonging to the Dutch Air Force (with a twenty year horizon), which would replace the current Mirage fleet and act as support for the brand new ten F-16 already purchased directly from United States. Total cost is in the range of 150 million US dollars.

The Chilean Navy already has defined the purchase of three missile Type 23 frigates from the Royal Navy, an operation involving 250 million US dollars, according to Navy commander Admiral Mighe Vergara who would like to see the contract signed before June 18 when he retires.

Traditionally Britain has been the main supplier for the Chilean Navy.

Finally the Army is planning to incorporate a first batch of 100 Leopard II German made tanks selling at an average cost of 400,000 US dollars each in the European market. The Chilean Army currently has 280 Leopard I tanks.

However no final decision has yet been reached since the Dutch government has offered a full package which includes jet fighters, frigates and tanks.



India gets to play Germany and France against each other. God what I would give for a chance to do that. LOLAlso looks like Russias offers remain out in the cold. :


HDW Submarine Resurfaces
New Delhi, May 28, 2005

A case of corruption against HDW (Howaldswerske), the German submarine manufacturer was closed by Delhi High Court Special Judge Aruna Suresh on 4th March 2005. This judgement and order totally absolves HDW of any wrong doing in the 1980's in connection with the supply of Type 209 submarines to the Indian Navy and once again opens the door for this company, along with its partner, MAN Ferrostaal AG to cooperate with India in its Naval modernisation programme. The Union government had banned all dealings with HDW and put the company on its black list after the public outcry over the submarine scandal in which hefty commissions were allegedly paid to powerful arms merchants, including a former Naval chief.

HDW submarines, of the Shishumar (Type 209) class have been in operation with the Indian Navy for a couple of decades now and Mazagon Docks continues to handle their maintenance. The latest Type 214 offerings from HDW / MAN Ferrostaal are equipped with a successful Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system and a sophisticated range of arms and sensors. The manufacturers also claim that they can offer this version at prices more favourable than those that India has currently been offered by other countries.

A Rediff.com report of 19th February, 2000 stated that according to authoritative sources, the Navy told the Union government that the ban should be lifted in the national interest and to avoid certain arms dealers holding up things. The Navy's request came after the French firm contracted for the mounting of Exocet missiles on the existing four HDW submarines, made heavy demands for the same.

Exocet missiles, currently in use in the French Agosta class submarines used by the Pakistan navy have a range of less than 60 kilometres. The French firm had then told Naval Headquarters that it would mount Exocet missiles only if they were given orders for at least 10 submarines. They also signaled to the Navy that they would be interested in the job only if they were handed the work on future submarine construction.

As part of the Indian Navy's ambitious submarine programme, Project 75, the government had approved the construction of 24 submarines in 30 years. Currently,
the navy operates with several Russian and four HDW submarines. In the first part of the project, the Navy wanted to upgrade its HDW submarines with powerful missiles. A HDW submarine has eight 21-inch torpedo tubes that can fire a AEG-SUT Mod-1 wire-guided, active/passive homing torpedo, with a 250 kg warhead.

According to the Navy, the best way to upgrade HDW submarines is to fit them with Klub class Russian missiles, which have a range of over 300 kms and are cost effective for this upgradation, the present submarine needs to be lengthened-a major modification- which HDW is capable of. HDW was blacklisted towards the end of 80s, after allegations of massive kickbacks in the deal with it.

The house of Admiral (retd) S M Nanda, who headed the Indian Navy during the 1971 India-Pakistan war, was raided by central investigation agencies suspecting he was one of the middlemen. He denied this in a detailed letter to the then Defence Minister, K C Pant, reproduced in his book, 'The Man who Bombed Karachi' (Harper Collins, 2004). He has maintained that it was a powerful NRI business family, heavily involved in arms deals, that was behind the smear campaign against him. Investigations came up with nothing substantial.

On 11th December, 1981 the Indian government signed the agreement with HDW under which two HDW 209 class submarines were to have been built in Germany, and the company was to supply spare parts for two other submarines, to be assembled at Mazagon Docks, Bombay. As per the agreement, HDW was to train Indian personnel in assembling the submarines, and were to have opened a consultancy service in Mumbai for the Navy. Acording to Rediff.com, Admiral Nanda opened a firm in Bombay that was involved in constructing the HDW submarine and has maintained that he was only providing consultancy services, based on a professional agreement.

The first two submarines made in Germany reached India in early 1987, and the two others were assembled in Mazgaon Docks after inordinate delays. A decision to build two more submarines at Mazgaon Docks was cancelled after the scandal broke out in 1987-88. Between 1992 and 1997 the government considered lifting the ban on HDW, but that was before the Navy thought of upgrading the German submarines. One of the HDW submarines, INS Shishumar was being upgraded in Bombay and the three others were to follow suit.

The HDW Fuel Cell for the AIP system is operational, tried and tested, as far as HDW is concerned. The French version is unproven and not requested by India for the first lot of Scorpene submarines. Even the untested French system is not being used by the French Navy. So, training of Indian seamen on that system is not possible. India's Mazagon Docks has already built HDW submarines of Shishumar class, which are giving excellent service. Skills for building and maintaining and operating these types of vessels exist already and can easily be upgraded for the new version of HDW craft. Not much time would be lost in taking a look at the HDW offer as they are willing to make an offer within 6 to10 weeks. HDW and German government are ready to offer transfer of technology and allow licensed construction in India, that too at a competitive price. When the Scorpene deal was discussed with the French company, no tender was floated and only one company was asked to submit an offer resulting in a non-competitive process. The fuel cell based system has many advantages over the French system, one of which is crucial in submarine warfare - being invisible. The fuel cell AIP system does not emit heat, noise, or any other scanable emitters; this makes it nearly invisible under water for a prolonged time range of up to three weeks. Beside that there are many more technical advantages. There is no French AIP system in operation and while rumours about problems with this system in Pakistan need not be taken into account, the fact that Scorpene was considered without any other competitor, it would be well in order for India to take another look at HDW, now that it has been cleared by the High Court.

The German submarine has excellent weapons and sensor systems comparable with the best in the world in its class. HDW is now a part of Germany's engineering giant MAN, whose 3-tonner trucks, popularly known as Shaktiman, have stood the test for time, terrain and temperature, for India's Armed Forces.

hammer

The French are already mad that they lost the Airbus deal to Boeing in India. The other deals waiting clearance are M2K-5 and Scorpene.
losing scorpene deal too would make the French very unhappy (to put it mildly) .

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