A story done by StratPost called Rafael’s innovative video marketing for India is making news around the world, with the Israeli arms company Rafael’s video uploaded by StratPost becoming fairly popular on the internet.

So much so that blogs like Citizentube, defense industry watchers like Wired’s Danger Room Blog, Forecast Highs and the DC gossip blog Wonkette have been talking about it. So too has mens lifestyle website Men’s XP.

But the StratPost story has also made news with the New York Times, with Ronald Mackey writing about it in the blog The Lede.

The promotional video was produced by the Israeli arms company Rafael and aired at Aero India 2009 held in Bangalore last month. The video has been derided by some commentators as badly produced and virtually all consider it invariably funny.

That the international defense industry is keen on getting a piece of the enormous Indian defense market is not surprising, considering the expenditure the Indian government is planning on defense equipment. The government plans to acquire a whole range of materiel from fighter aircraft, battle tanks, artillery howitzers, missiles of all ranges, naval vessels etc. Arms vendors all over the world are keenly interested in orders from India, as has been seen in the keenly watched race for the 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) order.

But another measure of this eagerness to do business with India is also the innovative video marketing which an Israeli arms company, Rafael displayed on large screen televisions at their stall at Aero India 2009 recently.

The video is a Bollywood-style dance number featuring Israeli artists in full Bollywood costume singing in English about the potential for the Indo-Israeli defense trade relationship and dancing around mock-ups of Rafael’s products. It is significant that recent reports have indicated Israel to have overtaken Russia as India’s single-largest defense materiel supplier.

StratPost spoke to Assy Josephy the Director of Exhibitions for Rafael about how this video came about. “In Israel we have Jewish people from India, so we know about Bollywood and the song and dance numbers. Israelis are generally aware of Indian culture. This video is to help build familiarity between India and Israel and Rafael,” he says.

But this is not the first time Rafael has exhibited something of the sort. Josephy says Rafael has displayed such videos in many countries with various themes customized to the culture of the locations. “In Brazil we did a video of football. Football is very big there. In Paris the video had a theme that included Napoleon and the Renaissance. In Poland our video had themes of Chopin and Copernicus. In England it was about Shakespeare,” says Josephy.

The Defense Minister AK Antony disappointed the contenders for the 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft contract during Aero India 2009, by declining to fly in any of the planes brought by four of the contenders.

The representatives of the companies had hoped to have an interaction with the minister and try and get some hint as to where things where headed with the tender. But Antony even refused to visit the chalets of the companies in the race for the deal, leaving them quite taken aback. The Russians were especially disappointed because of their old relationship with the Indian armed forces.

Defense Ministry insiders told StratPost this behavior is quite simply in conformity with the minister’s reputation for personal integrity. Such is his emphasis on maintaining a clean and corruption-free process of defense acquisition that even senior Indian Air Force (IAF) officers were not allowed to fly in any of the planes displayed at Aero India 2009, leaving celebrities, sportsmen, industrialists, former IAF officers and junior IAF officers to have a go on the fighters.

Lockheed Martin is assured of its F-16IN fighter aircraft being the best contender for the Indian Air Force (IAF) 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft tender.

Lockheed Martin’s Vice President of Business Development in India, Orville Prins points to two characteristics that go in favour of the Super Viper. “The key is the radar. The F-16IN has an operational AESA radar. Only Boeing’s F/A-18 can say the same. But the Super Viper is the only single-engine aircraft with an operational AESA radar. That makes for a low lifecycle cost,” he says.

He also points out that while all other companies are talking about building a fifth generation fighter, Lockheed Martin has already accomplished this. “There’s only one company in the world that’s actually built not one, but two fifth generation fighters. The F-22 and the F-35 are the only fifth generation aircraft in the world today,” says Prins.

So is the F-16IN actually a thirty-year-old aircraft or a new one? Prins clarifies, “It’s a new airplane. In fact we still have to develop it.” The F-16IN is designed especially for India and is not being offered to any other country

He also refers to maintenance issues, pointing to the other aircraft on display at Aero India 2009. “Look at the other aircraft here. Only the F-16 is ready to take off within minutes of landing after refueling. The others have to take time over maintenance. So the turnaround time is quicker,” says Prins.

He recommends independent confirmation of the abilities of the F-16. “Speak to the one air force that has consistently been operating the F-16 for combat. Speak to the Israeli Air Force. Don’t go by what we say. Talk to an actual user. They’ll tell you all about it,” says Prins.

The Australian Trade Commission is present in strength at Aero India 2009, looking to help Australian vendors get a piece of the action as far as India’s aerospace and defense industries are concerned.

Air Vice Marshal John Kindler elaborated on his country’s presence at the show. “What are we doing here? I’m with the Defense Export Unit. Australia has defense force. We help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) gain a foothold in other countries in terms of exports. See the Australian Defense Forces is relatively small in size. So exports would help these SMEs sustain themselves and grow, while at the same time fulfilling the needs of the Australian Defense Forces,” said Air Vice Marshal Kindler.

So what do Australian vendors make that would interest India? “Everything,” says Kindler. Australia is a partner in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and is home to Boeing, British Aerospace, EADS, Northrop Gruman, Thales and Saab. The country also manufactures submarines, frigates, armored vehicles, command and control systems, phased array radars and is involved in the design and manufacture of aircraft structures.

Ken Finlay, also of the Australian Defense Export Unit says, “The Australian participation combines Australian government and industry experience to showcase Australia’s innovative aerospace, defense and security technology solutions and relate these to the needs of global customers.”

The Indian Air Force (IAF) is displaying two of it’s old aircraft at Aero India 2009 to allow aviation enthusiasts to savor the IAF’s past, even in the din of the modern-day supersonic fighter jets jetting past. The De Havilland DH82 Tigermoth and Harvard aircraft are on static display at the show.

The Tigermoth at Aero India 2009

The Harvard at Aero India 2009

The MiG-35 flight demonstrator at Aero India 2009

Air Marshal Harish Masand

The MiG-35 crew leader was Russian Aircraft Corporation’s (RAC) project test pilot Mikhail Belyaev. Russia is at Aero India 2009 in force and has brought along it’s MiG-35 for flight displays. The aircraft is one of the contenders for the 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender floated by the Indian government.

Colonel Petr Mikulenka, Czech Air Force

Since the end of the Cold War, the Czech Republic started rebuilding it’s air force, even though existing threat perceptions had disappeared. Colonel Mikulenka tells StratPost, “At the end of the Cold War, it took us a long time to start thinking of rebuilding our air force. We canceled many plans for new bases at the end of the Cold War. Our government was focused on the budget. Naturally, since we are a small country we have limitations. But we started thinking in terms of expanding. Although the threats to my country had disappeared, we were now a part of NATO with new responsibilities and different types of threats had surfaced, especially after the terrorist attacks of 2001 in the United States.”

The Czech Air Force decided on the Gripen fighter and according to Mikulenka, has had no occasion to regret that decision. “So we decided we needed a whole new air force with new technologies. In 2003 we floated a tender for new aircraft, with very stringent criteria and a demanding timeline. We had experts in every field examining the offers. And finally Gripen won the tender. In 2004 we signed the agreement and we got delivery of the first aircraft in ten months. One year from the date of signing the agreement, we had two Gripen aircraft that were fully operational for NATO QRA duties. And we did all this with Gripen’s after sales support without any major problems. Our pilots have 7,000 flying hours. I think the numbers are pretty good, with around 150 hours per pilot. We now have 14 aircraft.”

Mikulenka also thinks there has been a perceptible change in the Russian defense industry’s ability to provide logistical support. “During the Cold War, we had pretty good logistics support from the Russian defense industry for our aircraft. But after the end of the Cold War, we started starving for spares, even though we kept our Mig 21s to minimum upgrades. It is very difficult to upgrade second generation aircraft – the shape of the aircraft is still an old design and beyond a point, one can’t do much with it,” he says.

The Czech decision was based not just on the suitability of the existing aircraft but also the future upgrade capabilities. Mikulenka says, “We picked the Gripen, because weren’t just thinking of the short-term future. It is an excellent aircraft with great potential for growth in terms of upgrades. It is capable of being upgraded till the year 2040. Throughout its service, the Mig 21 had malfunctions. Gripen simply has a self-testing system. The pilot is not forced to think about what to do when operating the aircraft. The aircraft shows you what to do and there are multiple redundancies built into its systems.”

The latest edition of the Bangalore Air Show to be held next week promises to be bigger and better than ever and in it’s seventh avatar will be the biggest show ever hosted by India. So says the Indian government’s Secretary for Defense Production, Pradeep Kumar. The show will have exhibitors from all around the globe under one roof showcasing the finest in aviation, with both flight as well as static displays of a wide range of civil and military aircrafts.

More than half the almost 600 participants at the show are from overseas. The 25 participating countries include UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands and Ukraine. China will be participating at this year’s Air Show for the first time.

The aircrafts on display include the F-16, F-18, MiG-35D, Eurofighter, IJT, Dhruv, Hawk, C-17, Embraer 135 business jet Legacy 600, C-130J, Citation XLS,G 550, AN-12 Cargo. The show will also see Defense Ministers from as many as eight countries at the show, not to mention defense delegations from 40 countries.

The show is a manifestation of the potential seen by foriegn manufacturers in the opening up of India’s defense sector to foreign direct investment. Indian and foreign companies will get the opportunity to network and share expertise and also conduct B2B meetings to maximize the potential for doing business.

India is in the market for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) and more than 200 helicopters for varying roles; is already buying eight of Boeing P-8I long range maritime aircraft, Boeing’s Harpoon missiles, six Hercules C-130J aircraft and awaiting the first of the AWACS aircraft from Israel . This list is merely indicative and hardly exhaustive.

Needless to say, if you’re a civil/military aviation manufacturer, the Bangalore Air Show is the place to be next week. StratPost will be there too, with in-depth daily coverage of products, displays, news and analysis.