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"Two aircraft -- a single seater and a
double-seater -- have flown out to the French
Air Base near Istres. The aircraft reached after
halts in two countries in the Gulf and two in
Europe," Thales country director Eric Lenseigne
said.
"The upgrade will begin immediately after.
A 22-member project team from the Indian Air Force
and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will be associated
with the project. This is what we call a middle-life
upgrade. It will take a few years," Lenseigne
told IANS.
According to sources, the pilots and some team
members could not have asked for a better flight
path, and destination. Their landings were slotted
for Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and Greece, before arriving
at Istres in French Riviera, northwest of Marseille.
Interestingly, this is the same Mediterannean,
Gulf and Arabian Sea route that the aircraft had
taken when brought from France by IAF pilots some
25 years ago.
Lenseigne explained that during the upgrade of
the two aircraft in Istres, a small team of Thales
experts would also visit Bangalore for the upgrade
of another two Mirage 2000 jets at the facility
of Hindustan Aeronautics.
"The dates have not been fixed yet. It could
be anytime towards the first half of 2013. Both
at Istres and Bangalore, there will also be a
simultaneous transfer of technology, so that the
remaining upgrades can be done by the Indian side,"
he said.
India had announced a contract in end-July with
two French defence firms -- Thales and Dassault
-- for upgrading its fleet of 51 Mirage 2000 combat
jets, which were acquired between 1982 and 1986.
The details regarding the size of the deal were
not spelt out.
But ministry officials had said it would work
out to around $4 billion, if one were also to
consider other investments, like $500 million
towards a new facility at Bangalore for Hindustan
Aeronautics and $1 billion for new weapons and
related additions.
At Istres, the aircraft will see an upgrade of
its avionics, combat systems, electronics for
military capability, night vision cockpit, advanced
navigational systems, friend-or-foe identification
system, radars and the warfare suites.
According to Lenseigne, Thales is also working
on the projects it will undertake as part of the
offsets for Mirage 2000 upgrade. India, like many
countries, asks defence vendors to spend some
the project money locally to source components
or as investment.
"We have in mind some 15 major proposals
covering army, navy and air force. These are in
broad areas like air defence, new generation equipment
for combat aircraft like sensors, and maritime
radars. Our partners are under selection,"
he added.
A $16.5 billion giant in the defence, security,
aerospace and transport markets, Thales has 68,000
employees in 50 countries. In India, it started
operations over five decades ago and also has
joint ventures with Rolta and Samtel, and a global
software arm in Chennai.
(IANS)
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