Here’s what India will buy from Leonardo
Facts, numbers and scenarios on the next purchases of India from the Leonardo group. Giacomo Cavanna's article for Ares-Defense Observatory
As recently as a few weeks ago, India canceled the ban on Leonardo being able to participate in tenders for the supply of military equipment.
Pure Indian spirit of initiative to reconnect with Italy?
Something related to the Marò affair?
New national political course?
Let's say that the Indians were forced to remove this block from Leonardo and this opens a huge chapter in the last decades of Indian procurement that increasingly seeks the use of technologies at a national level.
In fact, a senior executive of the Indian Ministry of Defense said that the removal of the blockade is due to the absence of alternatives for the purchase of 127 mm naval guns and heavy torpedoes.
It is certainly not new that the Otobreda 127/64 as well as its predecessor 127/54 Compact represent almost unique solutions in their class.
The "search" for these 127 mm guns is a long story but Leonardo in 2015 had entered the Black List and therefore the process was completely blocked.
Leonardo was a key supplier to the naval artillery of the Indian Navy which therefore had to continue the production of ships with "only" 76mm guns.
In the original designs the 127/64 gun was to equip the four Project 15B Visakhapatnam destroyers and the Project 17A frigate. These naval units were launched with the 76/62 produced under license by Bharat BHEL.
To try to remedy this problem, the Indians decided in 2019 to ask the United States for authorization to purchase 13 127 mm MK-45 MOD 4 guns, receiving an account of approximately one billion dollars.
In August 2021, the Indian Navy began seriously thinking about trashing the proposal as MK-45 guns are expensive but "specialized ammunition even more so."
India is therefore directed to purchase Leonardo's 127/64 guns and then replace the 76/62 on Visakhapatnam class destroyers and Progetto 17A class frigates.
Under current plans, seven Project 17A frigates and four Visakhapatnam class destroyers are planned, requiring a total of eleven 127mm guns.
To these must be added at least two specimens to be allocated to the ground for the training of technical personnel.
Considering the initial plans, the Indian Navy should require a total of thirteen guns.
As for the torpedoes, the situation is even more delicate, especially in the heavy ones.
The Indian Navy was interested in WASS's 533 mm diameter heavy Black Shark torpedo requesting as many as 98 torpedoes for about 300 million euros.
The Italian heavy torpedo is in fact often associated with the sale of Scorpene and Type 209 boats.
The Indian Ministry of Defense then examined the proposals of the German Atlas and the French DCNS.
Both negotiations did not give the desired result and the Kalvari-class submarines, based on the Scorpene, are armed with German heavy torpedoes AEG SUT 264 in service since 1967.
In short, in addition to the forced reverse with a block that only caused delays for the Indian Armed Forces, this underlines the importance that OTO Melara plays in the country system.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/leonardo-india-2/ on Sat, 04 Dec 2021 14:15:04 +0000.