India has decided to go global to procure the quick reaction Surface to Air Missile System as the Trishul Missile project, being developed as an interceptor to protect the country's vital installations, is yet to be completed.
Though New Delhi was planning to import such intercepting missiles from Israel, the talks seem to have gone into a cold storage as the role of the Israeli firm, which had imported seven such missiles in 2000 had come under CBI scanner for alleged payments to the middlemen.
"We are waiting for the Request For Proposal from the Government of India for the quick range Surface to Air Missile Systems," says Chief Executive officer of MBDA, Antoine Bouvier.
The company -- consortia of EADS (Germany), BAe Systems (Britain) and Finmeccanica (Italy) -- has been holding talks with Defence Research and Development organisation and Bharat Dynamics Limited to work out on the offsets.
MBDA, in which EADS is one of the major stake-holders, is one of the leading missile developers in Europe. The company is not averse to the transfer of technology to India.
'We know what cooperation means...we have a huge potential for cooperation with India,' Bouvier said.
And he says it would be a smooth run-up for transfer of technology as the French government had already approved transfer of technology to India, a country which is being perceived as the best bet for being a global partner.
The defence ministry, which had taken up the stand that work on Trishul was still going on, was preparing for floating the RFP and procuring the anti-missile system as quickly as possible.
Trishul (Sanskrit for trident) is the name of a short range surface-to-air missile which was being developed as part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme designed to be used against low-level (sea skimming) targets at short range.
Defence analysts argue that Trishul missile system is not a failure but technically its performance objectives as per original Qualitative Requirements (QRs) are delayed. The main reasons for this delay are technical problems in achieving perfect 3-beam guidance and obtaining millimetric wave components from abroad.
Due to the delay of Trishul missile system, its users -- Army, Air Force and Navy -- have resorted to acquisition from abroad as the QRs and operational requirements got modified over time.
The MBDA is offering the missile with a range of 15 kilometres for all versions for Army, Indian Air Force and Navy.
"The quick reaction Surface to Air Missile, which has a jointly developed millimetre wave, is also in tandem in carrying the warhead," Bouvier said.
