A year ago I published the translation of an internal document from Dassault and this seems premonitory to me today. The publication begins there:
MMRCA 2.0 - Update and discussion
But I'm going to republish it in a more compact way here.
The success of the Rafale in India is part of the Make in India initiative launched by Prime Minister Naranda Modi. From this contractual obligation, we make a strategic partnership with ambitious objectives: obtain new Rafale orders, gain competitiveness in business aviation, multiply projects in high technology. Our plant in Nagpur, in the centre of the country, will soon produce Falcon 2000 parts and sub-assemblies, then Rafale. We are creating a structure dedicated to civil and military engineering works in the Silicon Valley of Pune, near Bombay. We are studying R&D projects with the Indian Ministry of Defence. As you will read in the pages of this Special Make in India magazine, the members of the management committee, meeting in New Delhi in April, enthusiastically commit themselves to do everything possible to carry out, with their teams, these large-scale projects. I count on you as I count on them.
The main paragraphs are
- Military support
- Produce in India
- A methodical quality approach
- The local economic fabric in support
- Close digital cooperation
- India's land of conquest for the Falcons
- Pilot in India a challenge for programme managers
- Working in India a rewarding opportunity
- Optimized digital monitoring in production
- Development of intelligent air systems
With a futures market of 200 Rafale and production costs that place us at the heart of competition in the global civil market, the potential offered by India are as many reasons for us to succeed with our Make in India and to make our establishment in this country a complete success.
Training: accompanying our Indian partners
For the Indian government, Skill India, i.e. local education, is a necessary challenge for the country's economic development. For us and for the success of Make in India, it is therefore essential to accompany our customer by an adapted training.
Bruno Penot, head of the DGSM's training department, explains that "this programme could involve setting up an aeronautics department within an existing local school, the Governement Industrial Technical Institute (ITI), located in the Nagpur region, to train companions and technicians.
Today, the new challenge for our company is to develop an aeronautical professional baccalaureate program, to provide the DRAL joint venture with qualified and quality personnel. This ambitious project is perfectly in line with our client's industrial policy.
Produce in India
We are developing an aeronautical industrial sector in India to manufacture at the best cost, with the quality requirements expected by our civil and military customers, our Falcons 2000 as well as Rafale subassemblies and payload (pylons, pendular tanks).
Dedicated factory.
An aeronautical park, the Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace park, located on the international airport of nagpur, will now host, on a site of 25 hectares, Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) but also all our partners, including French SMEs which come to accompany the development of this industrial sector.
The new plant will start by assembling the Falcon 2000. The primary parts, components of these assemblies, will be subcontracted to Indian industry.
Stages of the project
Manufacturing transfers are organized in four stages.
The initial stage involves the assembly of the T1 section of the Falcon 2000 and its sub-assemblies, as well as sub-assemblies of the Rafale's moving parts, such as engine housings and control surfaces.
An initial Indian team of four production managers was trained in our methods in Biarritz for six months. A dozen companions have also received intensive training in assembly processes, provided in France by CODIFOR.
In the second quarter of 2019, a much larger building will allow the assembly of the T1 and T2 sections, then the splicing of the T12.
In the third quarter, production of the Rafale control surfaces will start in Nagpur.
The next stage is scheduled for the end of 2019 with the assembly of the horizontal plane, an additional section of the Falcon 2000 and the windscreens and skylights of the Rafale.
At the end of 2020, the third stage will begin. It will cover the junction of the fuselage sections, the layout (mattress assembly, cabin sealing, fluid and electrical circuit assembly) and the general assembly, the runway and the take off from Nagpur.
Finally, the last stage will begin in 2022 with the robotic assembly of the wings and the assembly of sections including oil tanks.
The Nagpur site ramp-up will see the construction of new buildings, in particular a kerosene test facility, paint facilities and a run-up area.
Local subcontracting partners
In parallel, the qualification of the first Indian suppliers was initiated by the purchasing and total quality departments (DGA and DGQT). Several companies, such as Mahindra, LMW, Maini and TAL, will produce protected and painted metal parts , which will then be assembled in Nagpur. New partners are being sought to expand this network.
The first assembly tools are also being manufactured by Indian subcontractors such as Hemkund, TAL, Alpha Tocol or Assystem India.
Essential to the success of our project, the training of companions began in France to strengthen their aeronautical skills. A partnership with Indian academic institutions is also under study.
Finally, DRAL's information system will comply with our standards. The technical data will be managed with Dassault systems software, such as 3DExperience, and will be operated with SAP.
Specific payloads branch
A specific industrial sector for payloads is developing in cooperation with the company DEFSYS, based in Gurgaon, near New Delhi.
In 2018, it will assemble the CRB 201 pylon and the ADP 170 adapter for the respective payloads of 2000-litre tank and MICA intercept and air combat missiles under the Rafale wing, using kits supplied by Dassault Aviation, before producing them entirely, from 2019, with primary parts made by Indian companies.
New transfers for the manufacture of drop tanks are being implemented, with the active support of the French company AEds.
Our Directorates-General, the Programme Directorates and the Legal and Insurance Directorates are mobilised. They contribute to the success of the project, in cooperation with the general management of industrial operations, Company industrial pilot of the
Make in India, with the aim of the first take-off of the Falcon 2000 from Nagpur and, one day,
that of the first Rafale manufactured in India.
India has long been recognized as a centre of high competence in IT development. As part of Make in India, part of the development sub-contracting, usually awarded to French companies, has been entrusted to the Indians.
[....]
As with software development, some traditional engineering work will be carried out by Indian companies.
An engineering centre is under study. Its mission will be to ensure local developments, such as the design of structural elements, support for production activities or the development of support systems.
The challenge for the DGSI consists in making all the tools and Company reference systems available to Indian subcontractors and Dassault Aviation personnel in charge of supervising them, in an environment controlled and secured by us.
The possibility of working in collaborative mode in India, as if the engineering centre were in Saint-Cloud, will mark the success of this project. It involves the establishment of a dedicated and efficient France-India gridded network, with an infrastructure managed from Saint-Cloud.
Finally, the objective is to deliver verified aircraft and products to customers that fully comply with their specifications.
For the programme directorates, this translates into four major challenges.
- Use the execution of the 36 Indian Rafales contract to promote transfer scenarios in the fields of production, but also logistical support and studies in order to achieve the local manufacturing transfer rates necessary to obtain future contracts.
- To associate Dassault Aviation, its subcontractors and its Indian partners through formal and rigorous processes of methodological transfers.
- Meet deadlines in this new remote environment.
- Controlling costs, seeking competitive gains to obtain a return on the major investments made.
Means are implemented to manage the new Franco-Indian context and control the risks.
[......]
The experience gained will enable us to implement the expectations of the Make in India of future Indian Rafale contracts.
