Indian Military

To shore up its depleting submarine fleet, India will this year issue a $11 billion global tender for building six more next generation vessels, navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said here Wednesday.

The new submarine program, known as Project 75I, will be a follow-on to the six Scorpenes that are being built at the Mumbai-based Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) under Project 75.

“The government has already cleared Project 75I. At the moment we are going through the process of Request For Information (RFI). I hope within this year we will be able to push the tender,” Verma said on the sidelines of a National Maritime Foundation seminar on submarines.

French firm DCNS is now executing the Project 75 Scorpene orders in collaboration with MDL at a cost of $4 billion. The Indian Navy operates 14 diesel-electric submarines at present after it decommissioned two Foxtrot class submarines last year. Of the 14 submarines, 10 are Kilo class Soviet-origin vessels and the rest are HDW German-origin vessels.

New Delhi-- The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the Indian Defence Ministry’s apex body, is shortly expected to take some tough decisions regarding the Defence Offset Policy. The Defence Ministry has been wary of any changes in the policy since it would benefit foreign players and push back the local Indian industry. However, consistent pressure from international players and other industry bodies has forced the DAC to consider changes in the offsets.

The current offset policy stipulates that international firms that win defence contracts above $66.6 million must invest back at least 30 per cent of the value into Indian defence production or research and development in India. However, the international vendors as well as industrial bodies feel that India cannot absorb the over $10 billion worth of offsets that has been speculated in the next five years.

One of the key issues in the offsets policy that seeks amendments is the services that fall under the purview of the offset obligations.

Six major western industry associations have written to the Indian Ministry of Defense asking for measures to ease their prospects for commerce in defense equipment. They say in their letter, “The current offset policies have effectively hindered our member companies’ ability to play a full role in supporting India’s defense, security and economic needs,” adding that, “These and other challenges presented by the current offset policy have often precluded our member companies from responding to a Request for Proposal. Our member companies have lost out on potential programs, while the MoD (Ministry of Defense) may not be able to benefit from the best technology solution at the best price.”

The letter was jointly written by the ADS (Aerospace, Defense and Security), a British association of defense and aerospace companies, AIA (Aerospace Industries Association), a US body, AIAC (Aerospace Industries Association of Canada), BDLI (Bundesverband der Deutschen Luft und Raumfahrtindustrie -German Aerospace Industries Association), GIFAS (Groupement des Industries Fran̤aises A̩ronautiques et Spatiales РGrouping of French Aerospace Industries) and USIBC (US India Business Council) and addressed to Defense Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony, Minister of State for Defense Mallipudi Mangapati Pallam Raju, Defense Secretary Pradeep Kumar, Secretary for Defense Production Raj Kumar Singh.

New Delhi– India’s new Defence Production Policy (DPP) which will take the domestic defence industry into the new era of self-reliance and indigenisation has been released this week. The draft of the new DPP was approved in December last year by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister AK Anthony.

The draft DPP indicates that the Indian government has decided that preference will be given to indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment. The new policy will apply to long-term needs such as equipment required over 10 years into the future and a robust defence industrial base will be developed for self-reliance. The industrial base will harness the potential of private sector for design, development and manufacture of defence equipment. In the case of strategic and critical technologies, the draft DPP stresses the need to be self-reliant.

The DPP 2011 also has a new offset policy that accepts a key request of foreign as well as Indian vendors in the aviation and homeland security sectors by expanding the existing list of products in the offset category to include internal security and civil aircraft.

The acquisition process for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) is facing delays due to uncertainties about offset policy and with vendors facing the prospect of having to redo their homework.

The IAF had submitted its report on the technical evaluation of the six aircraft competing to win the tender last summer. After this submission, the Ministry of Defense had to evaluate the offset proposals submitted by the six vendors and also compare the respective proposals for transfer of technology.

Last September, the respective vendors were invited to a review of their offset proposals by ministry officials, when they were all told that the proposals submitted by them failed to comply with the parameters set by the ministry. They were also informed at the time that in the case of offsets for third party suppliers, all vendors would need to have Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) in place with their suppliers’ suppliers as well, and that a letter to this effect would be issued shortly, which would also list out discrepancies in the offset proposals of the respective vendors.

The Indian Army has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for towed artillery guns, effectively canceling the previous process for procurement of these weapons systems, in which BAE Systems was fielding the FH77 B05, (an upgraded version of the FH77 B02 in service with the army) against Singapore Technologies (ST) Kinetics’ iFH 2000.

The army, which had issued the RFI on Thursday, gave much cause for confusion, by initially alluding to ‘A Self Propelled Gun System mounted on a vehicle chassis such as CEASER 155 mm Self propelled Gun’. The line was deleted on Friday evening, to remove any doubts about the earlier tender process being canceled.

During the day, on Friday, sources in the Ministry of Defense confirmed that the RFI, indeed, indicated a fresh tender for 155 mm/52 caliber Towed Artillery Guns. The reason the ministry gave for this decision was the creation of a single-vendor situation due to the non-appearance of the ST Kinetics’ gun at the trials.