Fighter Jets

NEW DELHI, March 25 (Itar-Tass) - India has cancelled a tender for the purchase abroad of 22 combat helicopters for its Air Force. According to a report published on Wednesday, this has been done because all the three proposals, received from foreign producers, do not meet the quality parameters. According to preliminary estimates, the overall value of the deal was expected to amount to 550 million dollars.

The Indian Defence Ministry asked for commercial proposals from five foreign companies in May 2008. Claimants to the contract initially included Boeing with Apach Longbow, Bell with AN-1 Super Cobra, Eurocopter with Tiger, Augusta-Westland with AW-129 Mangusta and Russian Ka-50 Black Shark. Prior to entering the final stage of the contest, however, two U.S. companies withdrew from it and informed the organisers of the tender of their decision.

Along with the cancellation of the tender, started last year, it was announced that another attempt would be made to appeal to potential exporters. The Indian defence ministry has changed its intentions on purchasing arms and munitions abroad several times of late. The cancellation of a tender for the purchase of 400 155-millimetre towed artillery pieces and of 197 light helicopters for the ground troops is one of the recent examples.

According to The Hindustan Times, the Indian defence ministry does not use to the full the enormous financial resources, allocated for the modernisation and re-equipment of the armed forces, because of bureaucratic procrastinations and the making of the purchasing procedure more complicated. Last year alone it “saved” 70 billion rupees out of 480 billion rupees (some ten billion dollars), allocated for that purpose.

Tags: air defence, Air Force, aircraft, helicopters, IAF, India, Indian Air Force, Russia