Winner of combat aircraft deal likely in 5-6 weeks: Naik -
Winner of combat aircraft deal likely in 5-6 weeks: Naik
New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) Air Chief Marshal P V Naik today said the likely winner of the multi-billion dollar combat aircraft deal would be known in the "next five to six" weeks.
"The next step is to call vendors and open up the commercial bids. I think in the next five to six weeks, I expect that the L1 (lowest bidder) would be decided," he said here.
As per the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), the lowest bidder in the multi vendor tenders is considered to be the winner of the deals.
European consortium Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Dassault Rafale are the two companies in race for supplying 126 Medium-Multirole Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA) to the Indian Air Force.
The two companies were shortlisted after a five-year long competition between six companies including the American Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Russian MiG 35 and Swedish Saab Gripen.
The IAF chief said that major procedures such as the completion of the Technical Offsets Evaluation Committee report have been finalised.
Commenting on the Mirage 2000 aircraft upgrade programme, Naik said the deal worth over Rs 10,900 crore would be signed soon under which 51 aircraft would be upgraded.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had recently cleared the proposal for upgrading 51 aircraft to the Mirage 2000-5 standards in collaboration with France.
On the results for procuring heavy-lift and attack helicopters, the IAF chief said the trials have been completed by the force and the trial report would be submitted to the Defence Ministry soon.