The coming year promises to be an exciting one for Indian defence. 2012 will see India sign military hardware deals adding up to a potential value greater than any previous year in its long history of international defence contracting. Across the three services, from rudimentary equipment to advanced network-centric backbone systems, the coming year will see the Indian armed forces and Defence Ministry contract across the spectrum. A whole raft of long-pending contracts will see conclusion, while delayed acquisition programmes will finally get off the ground. In addition, several research and development programmes will come to fruition, with acceptance and induction into the armed forces. Several indigenously built weapon platforms will enter service with the armed forces, significantly upping the self-reliance index.

MMRCA to set the tone

The year is expected to begin on a high note in January.

The most keenly anticipated competition is without doubt the Indian Air Force’s medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal, valued at roughly $11 billion, the country’s largest single defence purchase yet. The year is in fact expected to kick-off on a dramatic note, with the winner of this decade-long competition being announced in the third week of January, with contract signature before the financial year is complete in March 2012. The contract will bring to a close one of the longest and most dramatic competitions in the history of aerospace contracting.

A prominent entrant to the Indian military arsenal is INS Chakra, the Akula-II class nuclear propelled hunter killer submarine that Indian Navy has taken on lease for a decade. The boat is expected to be sailed down to Visakhapatnam later this month by its Indian crew.

Agni-pariksha?

Also in January, India’s most ambitious strategic weapon, the Agni-V is expected to undergo its debut test from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) off India’s east coast. The weapon which was scheduled for a test in December had to undergo last-minute software updates for its debut test this month.

Not far away, in Bangalore, by the end of January, India’s first carrier-borne fighter jet, the LCA-Navy is also expected to take off for the first time. Problems with weight and certain configurations have delayed the aircraft’s debut flight by over a year, though the team is now confident of a first flight. A first attempt will be made in end January.

RSH & other big-ticket deals

But the rest of 2012 promises to be no less action-packed.

Aircraft contracts that are scheduled to be awarded later in 2012 include the billion-dollar deal for 197 reconnaisance and surveillance helicopters (RSH) for the Army and IAF, currently a toss-up between the Eurocopter AS550 Fennec and the Ka-226 Sergei, a contract to Boeing for 22 AH-64D Block III Apache Longbow assault helicopters, an undecided award for 12 heavylift helicopters (a fight between the Boeing CH-47 Chinook and Mil Russia’s Mi-26 T2).

The Indian Government will also soon conclude a $1.2-billion follow-on deal for six more Lockheed-Martin C-130J Super Hercules special mission transports to augment the six already purchased.

A crucial contract to be awarded before March 2012 is a $565-million deal for 75 basic trainer aircraft to Swiss airplane maker Pilatus for the PC-7 Mk.2. Delayed following a protest by Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI), the IAF is keen to see the contract concluded at the earliest, considering the compounded effect it is having on the training regimen at the Air Force Academy.

Navy’s major asset build-up

The Indian Navy will be at the forefront of issuing requests for proposal for crucial asset acquisition programmes. These include a tender for the much-delayed Project 75 India for a second line of diesel-electric hunter-killer submarines that will be built in India alongside the delayed Scorpene line.

Apart from awarding a deal for four more P-8I Neptune long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft to Boeing, the navy will also conduct trials for six-eight medium-range maritime reconnaissance (MRMR) and anti-surface warfare aircraft, a competition expected to be fought by contenders that include a de-rated version of the Boeing P-8I, Saab 2000 MPA, Dassault’s Falcon 900 MPA, Alenia Aeronautica ATR-72 MP and EADS CASA CN-235 MPA.

Following the impending commissioning of INS Sahyadri, the third in the Project 17 Shivalik class stealth frigate series, the navy will make an even more significant induction in March 2012: the first indigenouslybuilt Project 15A guided missile destroyer INS Kolkata under construction at the Mazagon Dock in Mumbai. A few months later, in June 2012, the navy will commission into service INS Kamorta, its first indigenously built Project 28 anti-submarine warfare corvette, currently under final construction at the Garden Rearch Shipbuilders & Engineers in Kolkata. These two inductions will ramp up the Navy’s self-reliance index in a big way. The Shivalik class of frigates have already elicited international interest.

Finally, INS Vikramaditya (ex-Admiral Gorshkov)

If all goes according to plan, the year 2012 will be rounded off by one of the most crucial naval purchases. The INS Vikramaditya (ex-Admiral Gorshkov) STOBAR aircraft carrier is to be delivered to the Indian Navy by Russia in December 2012, many years later than promised. Once it arrives, the Vikramaditya will be based at INS Kadamba, the massive new naval base at Karwar. In Kochi, the indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant will enter its crucial second phase of construction, which officially aims at launch by the end of 2012, though this is an ambitious target.

If Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma’s wishes come true, 2012 will also see India’s first nuclear-propelled ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) Arihant (designated S-2 in the navy) begin sea trials in the Bay of Bengal. While the pressure water reactor is yet to go criticial, the boat is understood to be ready in all other respects to begin a rigorous regimen of trials where it will for the first time leave the Site Brave at the Shipbuilding Centre in Visakhapatnam.

Before March 2012, the Army will begin receiving its first weaponised Dhruv helicopters (Dhruv-WSI Mk.3), platforms armed with guns, anti-armour and air-combat weapons.