Airbus, Lockheed rush to tap India's $620 billion defence market

空客和洛克希德将进军印度6200亿美元国防市场

For a country that’s known as the world’s biggest arms importer, India’s defence market is a notoriously difficult nut to crack.

作为被公认为全球最大的武器进口国，印度国防市场这块硬骨头是出了名的难啃。

Airbus SE hasn’t won a single military contract for half a century. Unperturbed, the European firm is building a supply chain in the South Asian nation, training and expanding a slew of exstent part-makers that already help it build commercial jets. The hope is to easily meet local sourcing norms when, and if, it eventually wins an order.

空中客车公司这半个世纪以来一直未能签下任何一份军事合同。不过这家欧洲公司未受其扰，正在南亚国家建立供应链，培训并拓展了一大批目前已在协助空客生产商业飞机的制造商。空客希望借此满足当地的采购标准并最终赢得了订单。

Airbus isn’t alone. The likes of Lockheed Martin Corp., Saab AB and Boeing Co. -- gearing up to bid for the world’s biggest fighter jet order in play -- are also looking for more local partners who can build sophisticated parts for defence products. At the heart of the development is India’s insistence on local manufacturing, which mandates that at least 30 per cent of parts in imported defence products are made in India.

空客并非特例。洛克希德马丁公司、萨博公司和波音公司，这些努力争夺全球最大的战斗机订单标书的公司也在寻找更多的本土合作伙伴，为国防武器打造复杂的零部件。其中的关键因素是印度坚持发展当地制造业并规定进口国防产品中至少有30%必须在印度制造。

Building a self-sufficient domestic arms industry -- a key facet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to increase the share of manufacturing in the country’s economy -- will be at the forefront of a government-organized defence expo near Chennai this week. Dozens of foreign and local companies are ho to catch PM Modi’s eye when he addresses the event on April 12, aiming to win a chunk of business for India.

建立自给自足的国内军工产业是印度总理纳伦德拉•莫迪努力提高制造业在该国经济的占比的重中之重，将成为本周在金奈附近由政府举办的防务博览会的重要组成。数十家国内外公司希望能在莫迪总理参加4月12日的活动时，吸引莫迪总理的目光，为印度谈下大量生意。

Still, local production and sourcing is not a natural fit for the majority of companies. Most original producers of defence goods are actually assemblers rather than manufacturers, and setting up shop in India requires not only investing in training a local supply chain, but also convincing major global part-makers to do the same.

不过，本地生产和采购并不适合大多数公司。大多数国防产品的初始制造商实际上只是组装而非制造，他们在印度设立工厂不仅需要投资当地的供应链，还要说服全球主要的零件制造商也这样做。

Make in India Officer

印度制造专员

Airbus is a case in point. In 2016, less then two years after PM Modi took power, Airbus appointed Ashish Saraf as its ‘Make in India’ officer, the only company to create such a position. His job is to ensure a credible supply base in India that can contribute to the company’s defence products. It’s also a strong signal to the government about its seriousness to build in India.

空中客车就是一个很好的例子。2016年，在莫迪执政未满两年之时，空中客车公司任命阿希什•萨拉夫为“印度制造”专员，这是唯一一家设立这个职位的公司。他的工作是确保公司在印度有可靠的供应基地，可为公司的国防产品做出贡献。这也是一个向印度政府释放的强烈信号，表明他们立足印度的诚意。

"It is a dual industry where people who do defence goods also do commercial aerospace goods," Pierre de Bausset, managing director for Airbus Group in India, said in an interview in Hyderabad in March. It makes sense to "leverage what we are doing in commercial aerospace to be relevant in defense campaigns -- whether they are for helicopters, for defence airplanes."

印度空客集团董事总经理皮埃尔•德•巴塞特今年3月在海得拉巴接受采访时表示，“这是一个二合一的行业，既生产国防产品，也生产商业航天产品。用我们在商业航空领域的成就参与防务活动—无论是直升机还是国防飞机，都是有意义的。”

The opportunities are immense. India will set up a budget of $620 billion in the eight years to 2022, and local and foreign firms would have business opportunities of $168 billion, according to a study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Centrum Capital Ltd.

这是一个巨大的机遇。印度工商联合会和中央投资公司的研究表明，印度截止2022年的8年时间内将建立6200亿美元的预算，本土和外国公司将面临1680亿美元的商业机遇。

$15 Billion Deal

150亿美元的交易

That potential has attracted companies like Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s biggest defence contractor. Lockheed is pitching its F-16 fighter jets for a tender for 110 combat aircraft worth at least $15 billion, and has vowed to move its entire production line for the jet to India if it wins the deal.

这个潜在市场吸引了全球最大的国防承包商洛克希德马丁公司等多加公司。洛克希德公司正在竞标110架F-16战斗机的采购合约，价值至少达150亿美元，并发誓如果获得这笔交易，公司将把整个生产线转移到印度。

"This will put India right into the biggest fighter’s global supply chain immediately," Phil Shaw, who heads Lockheed’s India operations, said in an interview in New Delhi. "That will give a leg up to what the government is looking for -- to try and get an ecosystem developed."

洛克希德公司印度业务负责人菲尔•肖在新德里接受采访时说，“这将使印度立刻成为最大的战斗机全球供应链，这对印度政府试图发展国防制造生态系统的诉求来说是绝对的支持。”

One potential roadblock is India’s slow pace of decision making. Although PM Modi wants to modernize the country’s aging military equipment with a $250 billion investment, he’s been bogged down by a defence procurement process that’s known for delays, backtracking and corruption, making it a sensitive, slow-going process.

但是也存在潜在障碍，那就是印度缓慢的决策速度。尽管莫迪总理希望提供投资2500亿美元将该国陈旧的军事装备进行现代化改造，但他却深陷于国防采购流程的泥潭，这个流程因拖延、回溯和腐败而闻名，使得流程敏感而缓慢。

The warplane deal is a prime example. India started looking for new warplanes in 2007, a contest that ended with the government selecting Dassault Aviation for 126 Rafale jets for $11 billion. With talks stalling over price and quality guarantees, the government scrapped the purchase in 2015 and bought 36 jets separately to speed up the process. The nation last week started the entire process all over again.

战斗机采购就是一个最好的例子。2007年，印度就开始物色新的战斗机，这场竞争最终以印度政府选择向达索航空以110亿美元采购126架飓风战斗机而结束。但随后双方在对价格和质量保证进行谈判时陷入僵局，印度政府在2015年取消了采购计划，另外购买了36架飞机以加快这一进程。印度上周又重新开始操作整个流程。

Nowhere is the rush to boost local manufacturing more visible than in the fighter jet deal that’s still to be concluded. While Lockheed has partnered with salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group to bid for the order, Saab has teamed with billionaire Gautam Adani to offer its Gripen jets. The Indian order mandates that at least 85 per cent of the planes are built in India.

尽管战斗机采购合约尚未正式敲定，但没有什么能比战斗机采购给当地制造业带来更加明显的提振了。洛克希德-马丁公司与垄断印度各行各业的巨无霸塔塔集团合作竞标，萨博主推鹰式飞机与亿万富翁高塔姆•达尼合作竞标。印度的采购合约规定，飞机上至少85%的部分需在印度制造。

"Our plans in India are based not just on selling products but on creating a defence eco-system which would involve hundreds of Tier-1, -2 and -3 partners, vendors and suppliers, " said Mats Palmberg, vice president of industrial partnerships and business area, aeronautics at Saab AB. "Saab would incubate partnerships between its global supply chain and Indian suppliers."

萨博公司工业合作与商业领域的副总裁马特斯帕姆伯格说，“我们在印度的发展目标不单单是销售产品，还要建立一个防务生态系统，将联合数百个一级、二级和三级的合作伙伴、销售商和供应商。萨博将逐步培育萨博的全球供应链和印度供应商之间的伙伴关系。”

译文来源：三泰虎 http://www.santaihu.com/44662.html

印度时报网友评论：

Bijay

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Bijay-Noida-11 hours ago

We need JOB. Congress in 65 years has increased the unemployment.

我们需要工作。国大党执政的65年时间内，失业率增加了。