How not to sell Fighter Aircraft

P. Chacko Joseph — Wed, 11 May 2011 04:45:10 +0000

The ejection of American fighter aircraft’s F-16 and F-18 from the Indian MMRCA tender can be seen in many angles. A lot of analysts have projected the loss in several ways. There is a lot of history, emotions and cold calculations behind the deal.

Long time back, India wanted to buy the F-104 Starfighter and was bounced. We were asked to buy English Electric Lightning instead. The Soviet Union gave India the Mig-21. This is where the rivalry began. Indian Air force trained to defeat the American F-104 star fighters and F-86 Sabres in the Pakistan Air force. It was not just the IAF, even the Indian masses saw the fighters as enemy fighters. Then came the F-16′s to PAF. They flew aggressive CAPS and India purchased Mig-23, Mirage 2000 and MiG-29 as a counter. F-16 is considered enemy fighter even today. F-16 also has the tag of a donation fighter, normally given free to Pakistan. Indian’s grew up with stories of how Russian fighters were better than the Americans. 1965 and 1971 war further maligned the American fighters as enemies and defeatable. Notwithstanding brash claims by PAF pilots, Indians know that PAF had shut shop during 1971 war. Pakistani brandishing of F-16 during Kargil and Mumbai attack did not go well on the Indian side.

The massive Hollywood style blitzkrieg by American media managers did not produce awe among Indians. Old planes in new airframe said the Indian’s, and look, they are still selling it to Pakistanis. The logic of superior F-16′s to India fell on deaf ears. It is a matter of time that Pakistan will ask for parity in F-16′s too and US will comply, said the Indians. F-18 was just two numbers ahead of F-16. The media blitzkrieg backfired too. Indians are already hard wired to the dangers of American propaganda during the cold war. Another point was that the Lockheed Martin is still unpopular for withholding the Indian Light Combat Aircraft project.

F-16 IN, the enemy aircaft. Image: Lockheed Martin

Then American’s came to Gwalior. The MiG-21 Bisons came in heavy praise. American fliers went back and said a lot of things about IAF tactics and the Russian planes. The American invitation for Red Flag exercises gave an opportunity for Indians to compare the performance of Russian, European and American aircraft’s. Indian beliefs on American fighters got reinforced.

Then American’s committed seven cardinal sins. The first was an American company (Lockheed Martin?) asking the Indian Defence Minister to fix a schedule for the MMRCA contract. Indian Defence Minister reacted angrily to it. Second was the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement or “CISMoA” effect on existing deals. The third one was Boeing telling Indians that we can’t export LCA if they consult for it. The fourth one was Obama coming and telling us that he wanted the deal so that he could create jobs in his country. The fifth one was the Indian journalists fresh from sponsored US trip, telling Indians that the deal was miniscule compared to what US buys. The sixth one was when Lockheed Martin allegedly illegally obtained access to classified documents relating to the competition. And the final was indicating that the strategic deal hinges on the fighter aircraft deal.

To sum up, Americans wanted India to shell out hard cash for normally free equipment that comes with restrictive conditions and intrusive inspections.

American’s are not just bad pitchers, but, also bad losers. After being told that their planes won’t be needed, it was amusing to see how the US officials and contractors behaved. It began with the Americam Ambassador resigning. Then Lockheed martin and Boeing were publicly calling for Indian explanations.

This is an interesting case study on how not to sell fighter aircrafts.

Frontier India » Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement

How not to sell Fighter Aircraft