Indian Military

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.

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.