India begins procurement process for choppers

[Free Tibet]

India begins procurement process for choppers

PTI, Jan 23, 2010

New Delhi: After a delay of over six months, the procurement process for acquiring 197 Light Utility Helicopters (LUV) for Army and Air Force is all set to begin with the winter trials starting from January 25 in Punjab.

The first phase of the over-a-year-long trials will be held at Bhatinda in Punjab and after that the contenders will be put to test in summer trials expected to be held in June.

Later, high altitude trials will be undertaken at Siachen, Defense Ministry officials said here.

Field trials for procuring these LUHs were earlier expected to start in June last year but the Defence Ministry missed the deadline in announcing the date for the summer evaluations resulting in a delay of over six months.

The process to replace the ageing fleet of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters for the armed forces has already been delayed by around six years as the previous tender was cancelled in 2007.

The previous contract was cancelled by the Ministry after it found that the chopper offered by Eurocopter for the field trials at that time was a civilian version whereas the company had offered a military version for the deal in its bid.

The chopper engine offered in the Eurocopter's bid was also different from the one fitted in the civilian version, which participated in the trials.

The present tender was released by the Defence Ministry in the last quarter of 2008 and the Request for Proposal (RFP) was sent to six companies including Eurocopter, Russian Mil and Kamov, American Sikorsky and Bell and Italian Agusta Westland.

India begins procurement process for choppers :: Brahmand.com

 

[Dark Angel]

Does anyone know which ones are up against each other I am just guessing.........
AgustaWestland AW109





Kamov Ka-60

UH-72 Lakota

 

[Dark Angel]

I dont think India should go for MI or Bell..............

 

[sancho]

Does anyone know which ones are up against each other I am just guessing.........
AgustaWestland AW109

Kamov Ka-60

UH-72 Lakota

The Kamov is in the class of Dhruv and LUH must be lower, also I read somewhere that they wants to field this one:

????? ??-226

The Lakota is a varient of a Eurocopter heli, so it won't be an opponent for their own Fennec, which won the first competition:

Eurocopter Fennec - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AW 109 could be possible, but I don't know which version the US companies wants to offer, if their own Army prefered a european LUH.

 

[Dark Angel]

The Kamov is in the class of Dhruv and LUH must be lower, also I read somewhere that they wants to field this one:

????? ??-226

The Lakota is a varient of a Eurocopter heli, so it won't be an opponent for their own Fennec, which won the first competition:

Eurocopter Fennec - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AW 109 could be possible, but I don't know which version the US companies wants to offer, if their own Army prefered a european LUH.

So is it gonna be Eurocopter all the way

 

[sancho]

So is it gonna be Eurocopter all the way

If the cancellation is not caused by political issues, related to the new Indo-US relationship, I would say yes. Not only because the Fennec is a good heli, but because HAL has good relation and experience with Eurocopter and the former engine maker Turbomeca, through the Dhruv development for example. So it should be obvious that this can be a good partnership for another similar development too right?

HAL and Turbomeca have had a long history of joint industrial helicopter development in India, going back to the 1960s. In 1961, Turbomeca granted a manufacturing license for the Artouste turboshaft engine to equip the Indian Chetak and Cheetah helicopters[1]. The development of the Shakti/Ardiden 1H project was initiated in 1999 by the two companies to power the HAL Dhruv helicopter. However, several factors including the US embargo following India's 1998 nuclear tests forced the project to run behind schedule. Hence, early models of the Dhruv used the less powerful Turbomeca TM 333-2B2 engine as a contigency. The first test flight of the Dhruv with the new Shakti engine took place on 16 August 2007[2]. By late 2007, HAL started fitting the Shakti engines for Dhruvs produced from then.

HAL/Turbomeca Shakti - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By the fact that HAL develop the light observation helicopter, which will be used for half of the LUH requirement, wouldn't this be a good chance for another similar co-developed engine, that could be used in LOH and the Fennec at the same time?