india defance

Honeywell International said on Tuesday that it will bid for the Indian Air Force Jaguar re-engine programme.

Jaguars are a key strike asset for the Indian Air Force, which are expected to be in operation for another 25 years. The Air Force has about 125 twin-engine Jaguars in its fleet.

An official with Honeywell told newspersons that its F125 IN engine was a better product than the Rolls Royce 811 engine, which are currently part of the Jaguars. Honeywell Vice-President for military aircraft, Mr Vicki Panhuise, said that its F125IN engine can save up to Rs 7,000 crore for the Indian Air Force in life cycle costs compared with other upgrade options being currently considered.

He said his company will apply for the RFP which is expected to be floated during the second quarter of the current calendar year. The deal is expected to be closed by the fourth quarter of 2010.

Mr Panhuise said the Honeywell’s engines are at least 500 pounds lighter and more powerful than the others. It has unique features such as dual full – authority digital engine control system, modular construction and integrated engine health monitoring system.

The F125IN is the designation of the F125 engine for the Jaguar application, benefitting more than 540,000 hours of operational experience on the F125.

Mr Panhuise said Honeywell plans to produce the military version of its traffic collision alerting systems and other key safety and mechanical systems for the Indian Air Force C -130J programme.
Lockheed order

The Indian Air Force has ordered six Lockheed Martin C -130J aircraft. As a result of the order, Honeywell’s blanket agreement with Lockheed for aircraft equipment, the company anticipates delivering approximately $10 million in aircraft equipment for the programme.

Honeywell has around 10,000 employees working in India, which is nearly 10 per cent of the total workforce of the company globally.