Lockheed inks Memorandums of Understanding with three Indian start-ups

The world’s biggest aerospace and defence company, Lockheed Martin, on Friday announced it had signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with three Indian start-ups — Terero Mobility, Sastra Robotics, and NoPo Nanotechnologies.
These companies, which will now be mentored by Lockheed Martin to integrate into its global supply chain, were identified through the India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP), an innovation contest through which the US firm identifies Indian research and development (R&D) potential.

Lockheed Martin has announced it expects Terero Mobility to work on the design, development, test and qualification of a cargo ground buildup system (CGBS), which will handle cargo delivered by air force transport aircraft at remote locations without ground handling facilities.
The CGBS concept was developed through a Lockheed Martin-sponsored R&D project at IIT-Madras. The US company says it will provide “system engineering support and mentoring to Terero Mobility to enable them to develop and deliver a vehicle that is capable of transport by C-130 and similar platforms”.
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin says NoPo Nanotechnologies will work on qualifying Carbon nanotubes to provide electromagnetic interference and lightning protection. If it is successful, the Indian firm will become a supplier to Lockheed Martin and its Tier-1 vendors.
Sastra Robotics will work on robots for avionics testing of systems such as the avionics display of tactical fighter platforms, including the F-21 fighter that Lockheed Martin hopes to supply the Indian Air Force (IAF). Successful qualification would enable Sastra Robotics to be a supplier to Lockheed Martin and its Tier-1 vendors.
“We are delighted to have identified, through the IIGP, three inspiring start-ups that we perceive potential to collaborate with on a global scale. We envision our intended partnership with them to enhance the platforms and programmes we’re developing, especially the solutions we wish to offer India,” said Phil Shaw, who heads Lockheed Martin in India.
Lockheed Martin this week held an “aerospace suppliers conference” in New Delhi, to identify Indian firms that could manufacture components, sub-systems and systems.
If the firm’s F-21 fighter is selected by the IAF in an ongoing tender for 114 multi-role fighters, Lockheed Martin will be required to meet a stiff 40-50 per cent indigenisation requirement while building the F-21 in India.
Lockheed Martin has already tied up with Tata Advanced Systems. The two companies jointly produce a range of aerospace products, including Sikorsky helicopter cabins, at a joint facility in Hyderabad.
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Lockheed sees potential exports of 200 F-16 jets from proposed Indian plant

Lockheed Martin sees a potential export market of more than $20 billion for its F-16 fighter aircraft from an assembly line in India it has offered to set up in order to win a large Indian military order, a top executive said.
The US defence firm is competing with Boeing's F/A-18, Saab’s Gripen, Dassault Aviation's Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon and a Russian aircraft to supply the Indian air force with 114 combat planes in a deal estimated to be worth more than $15 billion.

Lockheed Martin has offered to shift its F-16 production line from the United States to India, potentially the biggest boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make-in-India project to create a defence industrial base and generate jobs for the thousands of youth entering the workforce each month.
Vivek Lall, the vice-president of strategy and business development at Lockheed, told Reuters that the firm would make India the sole global production centre for the F-16 that would meet the requirements for the Indian military but also overseas markets.
“We see current demand outside of India of more than 200 aircraft. The value of those initial acquisition programs would likely exceed $20 billion,” Lall said.
Bahrain and Slovakia had picked the F-16 Block 70 that had been offered to India, he said. "We are in discussions with Bulgaria, several other countries, 10 countries. There is a kind of a renaissance of the F-16."
India's defence ministry is expected to issue an expression of interest over the next several months, followed by a request for proposals in a long, drawn out process for the air force contract.
India’s military has said it wants 42 squadrons of jets, around 750 aircraft, to defend against a two pronged attack from China and Pakistan. But with old Russian jets like the MiG-21, first used in the 1960s, retiring soon, it could end up with only 22 squadrons by 2032, officials have warned.
Lall said the plan to relocate the F-16 plant which was originally in Fort Worth, Texas, will not undermine US.
President Donald Trump's signature goal of moving manufacturing back to America.
The plant in Texas is being used to produce the fifth generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that the United States Air Force is transitioning to.
Lall said there would still be work done out of the United States even if production of the F-16 moves to India and that Make in India and Trump's Make America Great Again were not at cross purposes.
"I think they complementary. The U.S. has a certain amount engineering and strength that will continue as long as the product is there, that will continue even when production moves."
Lockheed has picked Tata Advanced Systems as its Indian partner for the proposed F-16 plant and last year it announced that their joint venture will produce wings for the aircraft in India, regardless of whether it wins the Indian military order.

Lockheed Martin India to invite innovation ideas from start-ups

US war aircraft manufacturers Lockheed Martin will soon invite innovation ideas through its annual scheme meant for start-ups and university students to take forward their ideas and enable them enter the market.
"Applications for this programme, launched in 2007, will be received from March 21. It looks for start-ups and university students, who have got innovation, and they may be allowed to take their ideas to the next stage, enabling them to enter the market," Lockheed Martin India, Chief Executive Phil Shaw was quoted as saying in a release here.
Every year, the company has been getting around 1,500 applications for "India Innovation Growth Programme", Shaw said while addressing the audience at the Keralas first ever national level hardware start-up conclave conducted by Maker Village here today.
"People need exposure, investors or venture capitalists.
The programme is set up to identify the innovation that is taking place in India. From the ideas, an expert panel will select the best 10 and they will be going to the United States each year to be exposed to the innovation ecosystem in the US," Shaw said.
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defence, security and advanced technologies company.
In his keynote address, Kerala IT Secretary, M Sivasankar said Maker Village should associate itself with talents emerging from work experience fest being held in schools and colleges.
"One major thing that is happening in Kerala is the huge thrust, which we are trying to give on democratising of internet by ensuring that high quality bandwidth is available to every citizen and republic at large," he said commenting on the digital initiatives of the state.
Meanwhile, Kerala's first ever national level hardware startup conclave, organised by Maker Village here, concluded on a positive note with an array of speakers and stake-holders emphasising the need to tap the great potential in the hardware domain.
Around thousand participants, including hardware startups, officials representing the Centre and state governments, industries, technology firms, funding agencies, accelerators, hardware incubators, branding gurus and academic institutions from across the country attended the event held at Gokulam Convention Centre.
Major companies including Lockheed Martin, Siemens, Dassault Systems, Qualcomm India, Intel, ARM, Imec, Bosch, Tejas Networks, Invecas, Rambus and Texas Instruments India also participated in the event.

Lockheed Martin denies offering India fifth-generation F-35 fighter

Lockheed Martin, the US aerospace giant, rebutted a report that was widely published in the Indian media, that it had offered the state-of-the-art F-35 Lightning II fighter to the country. The F-35, a fifth-generation fighter, that is only now entering service in significant numbers, is superior to the F-16 Block 70 fighter that Lockheed Martin is offering India in its proposed purchase of an estimated 100 single-engine fighters.
But on Monday, Lockheed Martin spokesperson, Michael Friedman, stated: “The article referencing F-35 production in India was misreported and incorrect. The conversation was in regards to F-16 production.”
Further, DefenseNews magazine, quoted an Indian defence ministry official as stating: “There is no such plan, and no official proposal has come from US government and Lockheed Martin” to produce F-35s in India in the future.
The earlier report, originating from PTI and carried by several Indian newspapers, stated: “Lockheed Martin has proposed to manufacture custom-built F-35 fighter jets in India, which its officials say will give Indian industry a unique opportunity to become part of the world’s largest fighter aircraft ecosystem.” The confusion stemmed from a long-running marketing effort by Lockheed Martin to burnish the older F-16 Block 70 by suggesting that it containes many advanced technologies developed for the firm’s two most advanced fighter aircraft — the F-22 Raptor and the F-35.
Vivek Lall of Lockheed Martin told PTI: “Many of the systems used on the India-specific platform (i.e. the F-16 Block 70) are derived from key lessons learned and technologies from Lockheed Martin’s F-22 and the F-35, the world’s only operational fifth generation fighters.”
Lall, like several Lockheed Martin officials who have visited India in the preceding two years, said in New Delhi on Saturday that the F-16 Block 70 had fifth-generation capabilities. He said its key sensor — an APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar — shared a high degree of commonality with the F-22 and F-35 radars.
Those who oppose buying the F-16 for the Indian Air Force (IAF) say it is not in the same technology class as the F-22 and F-35, which India has never been offered; that the F-16 Block 70 is hardly an exclusive offer to India since it is building an equally capable version for Bahrain; that the F-16 is based on a 1970s airframe; and that Pakistan has operated it for decades, learning its weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Meanwhile, American officials and analysts who favour enhancing US-India relations suggest that Washington offer India the F-35, which it is supplying to at least nine other countries. Rich Verma, former US ambassador to India and now vice-president of strategic advisory, The Asia Group, has proposed Washington formally undertake to provide India a “qualitative military edge” (QME), as the US does with Israel.
“India has already been declared a ‘major defence partner’ of the United States.
Mandating a QME for India would open the door for supplying the F-35”, a top US defence industry head, based in India, said.
Yet, supplying F-35s to India would require a special effort by Washington. The IAF wants to rapidly induct fighters to replace 10 squadrons (about 200 aircraft) of MiG-21 and MiG-27s that are already overdue to retire, but the F-35 production line is already committed to building 3,000 fighters, including 600 for foreign customers, according to Lockheed Martin.
The F-35 line at Fort Worth, Texas — currently building 66 fighters a year and due to reach its full annual rate of 166 fighters only in 2023 — already has orders for two decades worth of production. “Does Washington have the political will to squeeze out 100 F-35s for India from a fully committed line?” asks a recently-retired IAF air marshal. The F-35’s affordability would be important for New Delhi. India is paying $115 million as the bare-bones cost of each Rafale fighter (with India-specific enhancements, spares, logistics and weapons all extra). In comparison, an F-35A (the air force version) cost just $94.6 million in February 2017, said Lockheed Martin.
This is slated to become even cheaper. “As production ramps (up) and additional improvements are implemented, Lockheed Martin’s goal is to reduce the cost of an F-35A to $80 million by 2020,” announced the company in November.
More than 265 operational F-35s have already been delivered to the US Air Force and eight other nations, including Australia, Italy, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Norway and United Kingdom.