India’s Light Transport Competition: Follow Avros to Exit

IAF’s 748M Avro

India’s slow-motion force modernization has made significant progress within its aerial transport fleet. Their AN-32s are being modernized, stretched C-130J Hercules have been bought for their special forces, and the IAF’s high-end IL-76s will soon be joined by 10 Boeing C-17 heavy transports. Now, at the very bottom of India’s fixed-wing transport force, it’s time to replace the 6 tonne capacity of the IAF’s 30 or so surviving 748M Avros. The planes are currently used for troop transport, communications, and training.

The 2 leading contenders are a familiar pair, and would be more like western counterparts to the higher-performance AN-32s. A number of other makes and models have been floated, which could make for an interesting competition if enough of them respond.

Turkey Sticks With Sikorsky: $3.5b for over 100 H-60 Family Helicopters

S-70i

In 2011, the Turkish Utility Helicopter Program picked Sikorsky to continue providing its S-70 Black Hawk/ Seahawk helicopters over the next 10 years. The deal is for up to 121 S-70i derivatives, and could be worth around $3.5 billion in total once the contracts are finalized. These helicopters would equip every branch of Turkey’s armed forces, and some civilian organizations besides.

The TUHP competition began much more modestly in 2005, as a $700 million deal for around 52 helicopters. As helicopter demands on its forces rose, the program expanded its numbers, and broadened its client base within Turkey. The expected competitors also changed rather quickly, moving from Sikorsky’s H-60 family and NHI’s NH90 to a straight shootout between Sikorsky’s new S-70i project, and AgustaWestland’s new AW149.

Turkey’s attack helicopter program wasn’t exactly a model procurement approach, and it should be no surprise that its selection of a new utility helicopter would also come years after the initially-promised date. The question now is when a contract will come.

Have Guns, Will Upgrade: The M109A6 Paladin PIM Partnership

Before: M109 & M992

The USA’s M109 self-propelled 155mm howitzers were first introduced in 1962, as a form of armored mobile artillery that could stand up to the massed fire tactics of Soviet heavy artillery and rockets. They and their companion M992 Armored Ammunition Resupply Vehicles have been rebuilt and upgraded several times, most recently via the M109A6 Paladin upgrade.

In the meantime, the Army has re-learned a few home truths. Artillery arrives in seconds rather than minutes or hours, is never unavailable due to bad weather, and delivers a possible volume of explosive destruction that would otherwise require bombers and precision weapons worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Most combat casualties in the gunpowder age have come from artillery fire, and the US Army will need its mobile fleet for some time to come. So, too, will the many countries that have bought the M109 and still use it, unless BAE wishes to cede that market to South Korea’s modern K9/K10 system, or new concept candidates like the KMW/GDLS DONAR. What to do? Enter the program.