OFFICIAL MEDIA PARtner – WingS india 2018 VISIT US At hall ‘B’ BOOTH 28 SP’s AN SP GUIDE PUBLICATION ED BUYER ONLY) ED BUYER AS -B A NDI I 100.00 ( ` aviationSHARP CONTENT FOR SHARP AUDIENCE www.sps-aviation.com vol 21 ISSUE 3 • 2018 MILITARY CIVIL FGFA update Challenges for MMRCA 2.0 India’s Civil & Aviation SP’s Take Potential of Revenue UAVs in Budget & Civil Aviation Desired Serviceability BUSINESS of IAF AVIATION Fighters EXCLUSIVE BAOA LAST President WORD Rohit Kapur Reform Says It Business How He Aviation to Sees It Boost National Economy +++ PAGE 10 Regional Jets in India EXTINCTION OR REBIRTH? THE ARTICLE ESTABLISHES THAT REGIONAL JETS ARE NOT EXTINCT BIRDS. RNI NUMBER: DELENG/2008/24199 INSTEAD, THINK OF THEM AS RISING LIKE A PHOENIX. SeaGuardian MULTI-ROLE SINGLE SOLUTION • 40 hour endurance provides superior mission area coverage • Powerful 360° maritime search radar with Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) • All weather, day/night, high definition full motion video and imagery • Enhanced situational awareness via teaming with manned air/surface needs • Tailored to fulfill the maritime security needs of India’s Navy www.ga-asi.com ©2017 General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. Leading the Situational Awareness Revolution PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jayant Baranwal SENIOR EDITOR TABLE OF CONTENTS Air Marshal B.K. Pandey (Retd) DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR Neetu Dhulia OFFIC IAL MEDIA PARtner – WingS india 2018 SENIOR TECHNICAL GROUP EDITOR VISIT US At hall ‘B’ BOOTH 28 Lt General Naresh Chand (Retd) SP’s AN SP GUIDE PUBLICATION ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR ED BUYER ONLY) ED BUYER AS -B Arpita Kala A NDI I 100.00 ( PRINCIpaL CORRESPONDENT ` aviationSHARP CONTENT FOR SHARP A UDIENC E Rohit Srivastava www.sps-aviation.com vol 21 ISSUE 3 • 2018 MILITARY CIVIL vol 21 ISSUE 3 • 2018 FGFA update Challenges CONTRIBUTORS for MMRCA 2.0 India’s Civil & Aviation India: Group Captain A.K. Sachdev (Retd), SP’s Take Potential of Group Captain Joseph Noronha (Retd) Revenue UAVs in Budget & Civil Aviation COVer IMAGE Desired Europe: Alan Peaford Serviceability BUSINESS It’s an intriguing prospect – smaller of IAF AVIATION Fighters EXCLUSIVE USA & Canada: LeRoy Cook BAOA capacity Regional Jets, nonstop flights LAST President WORD Rohit Kapur CHAIRmaN & MANAGING DIRECTOR Reform Says It that bypass hubs, higher yields, lower unit Business How He Jayant Baranwal Aviation to Sees It Boost National costs – that may just mean that RJs will Economy PLANNING & BUSINESS DEVELOpmENT +++ Executive Vice President: Rohit Goel once again find their place in Indian skies. PAGE 10 ADMIN & COORDINATION COVer illUSTRAtion bY Regional Jets in India Bharti Sharma EXTINCTION OR REBIRTH? Anoop Kamath THE ARTICLE ESTABLISHES THAT REGIONAL JETS ARE NOT EXTINCT BIRDS. ASSt – AdMIN, HR & INFRA RNI NUMBER: DELENG/2008/24199 INSTEAD, THINK OF THEM AS RISING LIKE A PHOENIX. Pooja Tehlani SP's Aviation Cover 3/2018 final.indd 1 03/03/18 6:01 PM DESIGN Holistic Directions: Jayant Baranwal Creative Director: Anoop Kamath Designers: Vimlesh Kumar Yadav, MILITARY SHOw REPORT Sonu Singh Bisht Research Assistant: Graphics 3 Viewpoint 24 Singapore Air Show Survi Massey FGFA for the IAF Components Called the Shots DIRECTOR: SALES & MARKETING Neetu Dhulia 17 MMRCA SALES & MARKETING MMRCA 2.0! REgular DepARTMENTS General Manager Sales: Rajeev Chugh 2 A Word from Editor-in-Chief SP’S WEBSITES 20 Budget Sr Web Developer: Shailendra P. Ashish Linking Revenue with Desired Web Developer: Ugrashen Vishwakarma 28 Hall of Fame Serviceability of IAF Fighters © SP Guide Publications, 2018 Juan Trippe (1899-1981) Subscription/Circulation Annual Inland: `1,200 • Foreign: US$320 CIVIL 29 News Digest E-mail: [email protected] 32 Last Word [email protected] 6 Industry LETTER TO EDITOR Challenges for Indian Civil Reform BA to Boost National [email protected]; [email protected] Aviation Economy For Advertising details, contact: [email protected] 10 Regional Aviation [email protected] Regional Jets in India Headed for SP GUIDE PUBLICATIONS PVT LTD A-133 Arjun Nagar, (Opposite Defence Colony) Extinction or Rebirth? New Delhi 110003, India. Tel: +91 (11) 24644693, 24644763, 24620130 12 UAVs Fax: +91 (11) 24647093 Potential of UAVs in Civil Aviation E-mail: [email protected] Representative Office BENGALURU, INDIA BUSINEss aVIATION 204, Jal Vayu Vihar, Kalyan Nagar, Bengaluru 560043, India. 14 BAOA Tel: +91 (80) 23682204 BAOA President Rohit Kapur says MOSCOW, RUSSIA LAGUK Co., Ltd., (Yuri Laskin) it how he sees it Krasnokholmskaya, Nab. 11/15, app. 132, Moscow 115172, Russia. Tel: +7 (495) 911 2762 By the wAY Awards 2017 Fax: +7 (495) 912 1260 23 Cantonment Tales SPECIAL MEMBER OF Kid of the Forces, Shoojit Sircar, CONTRIBUTION TO Re-lives his Childhood Memories BUSINESS AVIATION NEXT ISSUE: Defexpo Special www.sps-aviation.comWWW.SPGUIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM ISSUE 3 • 2018 1 A WORD from editOR-in-CHIEF With the rapid growth of regional aviation in India, Regional Jets have the potential to play a major role in the future in the Indian regional aviation segment There are indications that the efforts of the Indian week of February 2018. Even though the majority of global play- Air Force (IAF) to restore the badly depleted fleet of combat air- ers in the domain of civil aviation were present at the Airshow, craft to the authorised level, that had run aground in the recent there were no major deals concluded. At this event, the focus of past, is beginning to move forward again. It is understood that the industry appeared to be largely on components as also on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is likely to issue a Request for maintenance, repairs and overhaul contracts. Rohit Srivastava Information (RFI) to selected aerospace majors across the world has a detailed report on the event in this issue of SP’s Aviation. seeking their response to India’s quest for a single or a twin- In an interview, Rohit Kapur, President of Business Air- engine combat aircraft in fairly large numbers for the IAF under craft Operators Association, explicitly catalogues the infirmities the Make in India programme. However, given the complexities afflicting the business aviation segment of the Indian civil avia- of the Defence Procurement Procedure, this is only a prelimi- tion industry and the reforms needed to make it more business- nary step and the process may take some time to fructify. In the friendly and productive. The thrust for reforms must be focussed meantime, the IAF will wait with fingers crossed and hope that not only through changes in policy; but equally important is the this new exercise does not meet the same fate as was the case in need for change in perception of the vital role this segment of 2015 with the tender for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft the Indian civil aviation industry can play in the growth of the (MMRCA). However, the latest move by the MoD will be a repeat national economy. Group Captain C.J. Weir (Retd) who has been of the MMRCA tender floated in 2007. The need to explore options associated with the civil aviation industry since retirement from to induct combat aircraft in quick time has become urgent espe- the IAF, in an article in this issue, highlights some of the serious cially as the project to develop a fifth-generation fighter aircraft issues and challenges that confront present day civil aviation in jointly with Russia, is also plagued with uncertainty. India and what the concerned authorities can do to ensure bet- In this issue of SP’s Aviation, Byron Bohlman, an aviation ter efficiency with higher standards of safety. expert, analyses the regional aviation scene in India and the All this and more in this issue of SP’s Aviation. Welcome issues related to profitability in operating Regional Jets. The aboard and do visit us at Wings India 2018 in Booth No. 28, author states that currently, carriers in India largely operate tur- Hall B. boprops on short routes as these aircraft offer better profitability. However, on the longer routes Regional Jets have the potential to offer significantly better profitability. There is a crossover point, measured by distance, where the efficiency of a jet surpasses that of a turboprop. Longer sectors hold the key to Regional Jet’s suc- cess where nonstop flights that replace hub connections can com- mand higher yields. With the rapid growth of regional aviation in India, Regional Jets have the potential to play a major role in the future in the Indian regional aviation segment. JAYANT BARANWAL A major event on the global civil aviation scene in the recent past has been the Singapore Airshow 2018 held in the second PUBLISHER & EDITor-in-CHIEF Owned, published and printed by Jayant Baranwal, printed at Kala Jyothi Process Pvt Ltd and published at FOLLOW US ON A-133, Arjun Nagar (Opposite Defence Colony), New Delhi 110003, India. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, photocopying, recording, electronic, or otherwise without prior written permission of the Publishers. @SPsAviation SPPublications 2 ISSUE 3 • 2018 www.sps-aviation.com MILITARY VIEWPOINT FGFA For the IAF On account of the technological, capability and price issues, the IAF was clearly unhappy with the platform and was keen that the project be called off By Air MARSHAl B.K. PANDEy (retd) India’s quest for a combat aircraft from a foreign aerospace and defence industry as well, because Russia was source to enable the Indian Air Force (IAF) to foray into the fifth keen to remain in the number one slot in the world as supplier generation, began on January 26, 2007, when President Vladi- of military hardware to India.