Indian Military

New Delhi — The Indian Navy continues to suffer delays in acquiring multi-role helicopters (MRH) as bids from international manufacturers have expired. The Indian Defence Ministry has indicated that the commercial bids from US firm Sikorsky and British-Italian firm Agusta Westland for the MRH have expired last month.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) for the 16 MRH worth $1 billion was issued in August 2008 and since the commercial bids are valid for two years only, they stand expired. The Indian Defence Ministry now intends to request the firms to revise their offers. While the technical evaluation has been wrapped up, Indian Navy is yet to pursue the Flight Evaluation Trials for the two contenders.

The two contenders for the MRH for the Indian Navy are the US firm Sikorsky’s S-70B Sea Hawk and British-Italian Agusta Westland’s NH-90 helicopters. Once the contract is decided and awarded, the Indian Navy would get the delivery of the MRH within 46 months in three phases and the RFP provides an option of placing follow-on orders for another 44 helicopters.

New Delhi – The French shipbuilding major Direction des Constructions Navales or DCNS is eyeing the Indian defence sector for future programmes even as its current collaboration, namely the P-75 to build six Scorpene submarines, is way behind schedule. DCNS has already looked into the request for information on the new P-75I project for six new submarines and is awaiting the request for proposal (RFP) of the same.

While the recent visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy has not affected any new defence deals, the willingness of DCNS to collaborate with India is a reflection of France’s openness towards India. The P-75 project for submarines also provides for transfer of technology. As for the French President, he has assured the supply of advanced defence technologies in a way that contributes to the modernisation of the Indian defence industry.

As per the revised schedule, the first submarine from the P-75 project is expected to be with the Indian Navy by 2015 and the last by 2018.

New Delhi – The Indian government has once again floated tenders for Towed and Tracked Gun Systems and vendors from various countries like France, Britain and the U.S have been invited for the bids. The acquisition is a major part of the Indian Army’s modernisation programme but has always suffered setbacks due to repeat cancellations of the tender. While the process to acquire towed and tracked gun systems was initiated in 2006, tenders have been cancelled due to the alleged corruption and scams involving the bidding companies from abroad.

However, India has come close to negotiating the acquisition of 145 ultra light guns from BAE Systems US called the M-777 A1 since the trials for the same have been concluded in India. India plans to acquire this gun through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route and the US Congress has already given its clearance.

The M-777 A1 is an ultra light 155mm/45 calibre gun and its striking features include its mobility, transportability, survivability and lethality.

New Delhi – The long-awaited induction of the basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) is nearing fruition as the flight trials for the same have been completed. According to sources, the reports of the trials are with the Indian Defence Ministry and they are assessing the flight evaluations made by the IAF which will lead to the negotiation of the contract. The flight trials comprised of observing the details like flight characteristics, handling qualities, fuel consumption, and duration of sorties, ease of handling and operations, and available instrumentation.

The IAF plans to procure 75 basic trainers in a deal close to $1 billion. The Indian Defence Ministry’s initial Request for Proposal in early 2010 sought the purchase of 75 aircraft “off-the-shelf” and another 106 to be built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under a joint venture arrangement. The current contenders are the Hawker Beechcraft T-6C Texan II, the Grob G-120, the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KT-1, the Pilatus PC-7 and EADS’ PZL-130 Orlik.

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The Indian Navy has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for a second batch of Multi-Role Helicopters (MRH), even with the existing tender process for a USD 1 billion order for 16 helicopters still under way.

The RFI reads, “The Ministry of Defence, Government of India, intends to augment the fleet of existing multi role helicopters (ASW/ASUW/Special Ops Commando) with suitable new-build Naval Multi Role Helicopters (NMRH), with comparable performance and ASW, ASuW, SAR, ELINT and Special Operation / Commando operation capabilities. The basic helicopter for all three roles viz ASW, ASuW and Special Operation / Commando should be same with common airframe, engines, avionics etc for ease of maintenance training and Op-logistics issues. Capability should exist in the helicopter for role specific configurations to be achieved with ease.”

The navy shopping around for a second time is being seen as a result of the the increasing requirement for Multi Role Helicopters, keeping in mind the decreasing life of the navy’s Sea King helicopters.

New Delhi –The Indian Air Force (IAF) has finally equipped 55 of the Jaguar fighter aircraft with autopilots after the Indian Defence Ministry was criticised for delays in the upgradation. Defence Minister AK Anthony has assured that it will soon be issuing a tender for procuring additional sets of autopilots for the remaining Jaguars in the IAF fleet.

The Comptroller and Auditor General had raised the issue of delay in the induction of autopilot in its report of 2008-09 and the Indian Defence Ministry was blamed for this delay. The Indian Defence Ministry agreed with the audit conclusions and will be issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for new sets of autopilots for the Jaguar fighters.

The Jaguar fighters have always been a trusted war horse since they first came to the IAF almost three decades ago. At the time of induction, the Jaguar was considered to be the fastest aircraft and added a new dimension to air operations in the Indian sub-continent. Under an agreement with the Indian Air Force, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been entrusted with the upgradation of Jaguars that would extend their life by another 15 years, through the year 2020.

HYDERABAD: The multi-billion dollar deal to acquire 126 fighter jets under the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) project is likely to be inked by mid-2011, Indian Air Force chief said.
"It is a big deal. We have finished the evaluation and the matter is with the (defence) ministry now. Hopefully, it will progress and we will be able to sign the contract by July next year. After that it takes three years for delivery," Air chief marshal P V Naik said.
He was talking to reporters after reviewing the Combined Graduation Parade of flight cadets of IAF at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal, about 35 km from here.
Six global aeronautical firms are in the fray for the contract for which a tender was floated in August 2007.
The chief of Air Staff said besides the MMRCA project, deals for inducting new aircraft were in the pipeline. India and Russia are jointly developing the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA). "We will be going in for about 200-250 of such fighter planes starting from 2017 onwards.

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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.