The international air shows at Le Bourget, Paris, and Farnborough, London, continue to be top-notch, though the major buyers of both defence and commercial aviation products could be outside Europe. These air shows have long been established and continue to attract trade visitors from across the world. India, on the other hand, is a fairly recent entrant with the first Aero India held in 1996 and is making rapid strides, one driven by major acquisition programmes and two the organisation of the show itself is coming of age. And we at SP Guide Publications are proud to be associated as the ‘Key Official Media Partners’ of Aero India for successive editions.

In its ninth edition, Aero India 2013 held from February 6 to 10 at the Yelahanka Air Force Station, near Bengaluru, the show has matured, though there was initial scepticism that it would not have the same kind of ‘firepower’ of the previous editions, now that India had selected Dassault Aviation’s Rafale for IAF’s requirement of medium multi-role combat aircraft. The pundits were proven wrong as the enthusiasm and business opportunities were opening up fast. And we are not talking about the sea of humanity which turns up for the air show, unlike anywhere else.

Air shows are not all about fighter aircraft which one wag called fighter jets as ‘fuel to noise converters’. They are about aircraft, small and big, military and commercial; they are about products and solutions, both airborne and ground; they are about weapons; they are about components; they are about services and a whole gamut of aviation related stuff. While the number of aircraft on display, both static and air, was marginally down from the previous edition, Aero India 2013 used twice the exhibition space of 2011 to showcase a wide array of products and solutions. And boy, the exhibitors were happy. Todd Hattaway, Country Director (India) of Beechcraft, said: ‘Though our chalet was far away from the nerve centre, we must say that it has been a good show, getting better every time. We have had some fruitful business meetings.”

The fact that Beechcraft found the going good was an indicator how commercial/general aviation side was finding Aero India as an ideal platform to partner with, despite the fact that it remains predominantly a military show. The presence of a large number of civilian aircraft manufacturers gave it a twist. There were almost 50 of the total 627 exhibitors (352 from overseas).

US leads with huge delegation

The major foreign companies were from the US which had the largest delegation (67 companies), followed by France (49), the United Kingdom (33), Russia (29) and Germany (22).

With the US military sales to India touching close to $12 billion, several top US defence companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, Textron, Gulfstream, General Electric, Honeywell and a host of others were displaying their products and solutions for the Indian market. Endorsing their presence was the US Ambassador to India, Nancy Powell, who eulogised the growing relationship between the two countries.

From UK, the Minister of Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, Philip Dunne was hoping to build on the UK’s recent successes in the Indian market, in particular the Hawk jet trainer contract and looked forward to further tranches of the aircraft in the near future. He also cited the excellent progress of the Rolls-Royce/Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) joint venture that is producing engine components.

Commercial and general aviation

The Minister for Civil Aviation, Ajit Singh, at the inaugural ceremony underscored the growing importance of civil aviation market in India and how it was racing towards becoming one of the top three fastest growing markets in the next couple of years, registering a growth rate of 15 per cent a year. With foreign direct investment (FDI) in airlines; policies to encourage regional airliners; hinterland connectivity; exponential passenger and cargo movement, the sector is all set to explode in the coming years.

Endorsing the growth story was Boeing’s Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific and India Sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Dinesh Keskar, who is betting big on India. Boeing in fact has revised upwards the airplane requirement for India in sync with growth patterns. Keskar said that in the short term while traffic is dropping due to reduced capacity, yields are improving and fuel prices are stabilising in the market. ‘These are all positive signs for the airlines in India.”

From a commercial and general aviation perspective, some of the biggies who showcased included the Brazilian giant Embraer with its Lineage 1000, Phenom 100 and the EMB 135BJ (business jet variant). From Hawker Beechcraft there was King Air, while Cessna brought the VLJ Cessna Mustang to the show. The Indian Air Force’s new Pilatus PC-7 Mk II made its presence too.

Focus shifts

In recent years, the focus of defence and aviation events in India is shifting from selling or buying to getting into collaborations, joint ventures, partnerships, etc following the government liberalising the defence offset policy. The fruits of such collaborative efforts will be seen in the next couple of years. Such platforms propel small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and at the show, the SMEs were busy in the light of liberalisation, offset opportunities, etc.

Defence aviation rules

However, the military aviation drew all the attention. The major attractions were indeed the Dassault Rafale, Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, the indigenously developed light combat aircraft Tejas, HAL’s advanced light helicopter ‘Rudra’ among others. Major aircraft manufacturing companies such as Lockheed Martin, Saab, etc did not showcase any aircraft, though there was an air force F-16 as part of the static display. The highpoints at the show included the HAL-Sukhoi prospective multi-role fighter (PMF), the modified version of the Sukhoi T-50/PAK FA which is already under test across four prototypes in Russia. In the rotary-wing, Eurocopter and Sikorsky made presentations on how their choppers were suitable for a variety of missions, both military and civilian.

UAVs attract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are becoming the norm in intelligence surveillance reconnaissance (ISR) activities and there was growing interest in the same. Cassidian showcased Tanan 300 UAV; UTC Aerospace Systems exhibited two new unmanned aerial systems – Vireo and Optio which are said to be low-cost and applicable in a wide variety of markets; Elbit Systems presented high performance turnkey UAS solutions, including advanced air vehicles, ground control stations etc. Elbit presented in 1:1 size the Skylark (long endurance) UAS and Hermes 90, a tactical close-range long-endurance UAS. Northrop Grumman Corporation highlighted its industryleading range of capabilities in ISR including airborne early warning and control systems for maritime reconnaissance and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Israeli companies caught the attention for their effective defence strategies and Rafael, for the first time, showcased the ‘Iron Dome’ missile system, designed to intercept and destroy shortrange rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4-70 km.

BrahMos Aerospace unveiled a scale-model of the hypersonic BrahMos-II multi-role cruise missile and full-scale model of the launch pylon for air-launched BrahMos-I, etc.

Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter displayed a broad selection of cutting-edge products, technologies and solutions and they included a mock-up of the multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) from Airbus Military; sitcom terminal and telecommunications satellites from Astrium; UAVs, sensors, defence electronics and avionics systems from Cassidian; a range of helicopters including a Naval Panther from Eurocopter and a mock-up of ATR 72-600. India’s very own Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) was aggressive in marketing their efforts. V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister and head of DRDO, said: “Growth in aerospace cannot be limited to collaboration in manufacturing and has to be in all aspects—design, product and development.”

The takeaway from Aero India 2013 indeed had to do with indigenisation efforts in collaboration with foreign partners, now that the government has liberalised offsets policy. There may not have been any major announcements or deals during the air show, but it was indicative of steady development of the Indian defence industry with keen participation from the private sector.

To sum up, the surging crowds at the air show which normally come for the aerobatics (by the Flying Bulls from Czech Republic; the Russian Knights and IAF’s Sarang) reflects the growing enthusiasm for high-end technologies, be it in the air or ground.