India floats $750 mn global tender to buy choppers

[ejaz007]

India floats $750 mn global tender to buy choppers
Press Trust of India / New Delhi July 23, 2008, 18:54 IST


The government is all set to float its biggest military tender this year worth a whopping $750 millionfor buying 197 light utility helicopters for the armed forces with three of the six bidding companies being giant American aviation transnationals.

A request for proposals for the Rs 3,000-crore contract to buy 133 helicopters for Army Aviation and another 64 for Indian Air Force are to be floated tomorrow, officials said.

New helicopters are expected to replace by 2010 Army and IAF's ageing fleet of Cheetah and Chetak choppers, which have been in service for the past over four decades, well past their service ceiling.

All the helicopters are to be procured off the shelf with state-owned HAL being entrusted with only maintenance. The new choppers are being brought on fast track basis to shore up army formations guarding the dizzy Himalayan borders with China and Pakistan.

Like the IAF's $10 billion contract to purchase 126 fighters, the foreign company winning the lucrative contract would have to invest 50 per cent as offsets in India.

The three US companies invited to submit their bids are Bell Helicopters with their Shen 407 light choppers, McDonnel Douglas with their AH-64 A and Sikorsky with their S-3000 helicopters.

Other bidders are European consortium Eurocopter, Russian Rosenbroexport with their new range of Kamov light helicopters and Italian firm Augusta Westland.

"The companies have been given three months time to submit their bids," a Defence Ministry official said, adding it was proposed to complete summer and winter trials for the helicopters by 2009.

:: Bharat-Rakshak.com - Indian Military News Headlines ::

Its second or third time the bids are being called for the purchase of helicopters. Lets wait and see if we have a contract this time or not.
Regards,

 

[ejaz007]

Indian Air Force 197 Light Helicopter Contract: Bell Withdraws Bid Citing Offsets Clause
Dated 13/11/2008


After withdrawing its bid from the Indian Air Force's (IAF) attack helicopter deal, US chopper manufacturer Bell has now backed off from the contest for 197 light utility helicopters (LUHs). "We are not participating in the competition as our senior management felt it was not feasible for the company to comply with the offsets clause in the tender documents," a Bell Helicopters India Incorporated official said today.

The decision of Bell comes within a month of it exiting the attack helicopter bids citing problems with procurement procedure. India had issued the request for proposals (RFP) for the 197 LUHs this July. Bell claimed the Indian Defence Ministry had put down clauses under which the original equipment manufacturer winning the contract was bound to plough back 50 per cent of the deal amount to India as offsets, which was hard for them to comply with.

In fact, India was forced to issue a fresh tender for its LUH requirements, after cancelling the original RFP in December last following objections raised by Bell over rejection of its bids in favour of French major Eurocopter's AS-355 'Fennec'.

Bell and Eurocopter were the two final contenders and India had decided to put its weight with 'Fennec' after technical evaluation.


Indian Air Force 197 Light Helicopter Contract: Bell Withdraws Bid Citing Offsets Clause | India Defence

 

[ejaz007]

India Delays Final Bid Date in Helo Purchase
By vivek raghuvanshi
Published: 17 Nov 13:19 EST (18:19 GMT)

NEW DELHI - The procurement of 197 reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters for the Indian Air Force and Army has been further delayed, as the last date for submission of bids has been postponed.

Sources in the Indian Defence Ministry said the postponement of the last date to submit technical and commercial bids has been extended by two months, from Oct. 24to Dec. 19. Sources said the submission date could be extended further as the competitors are finding it difficult to file their bids with complete details about mandatory offset requirements.

In the $750 million bid floated in July, the Defence Ministry increased the level of mandatory defense offsets from the current level of 30 percent to 50 percent.

The request for proposals has been send to Eurocopter of France, Bell Helicopter, Sikorsky Aircraft, Boeing of the United States, AgustaWestland of Italy and Kamov Design Bureau.

The Defence Ministry had promised the users that the procurement of 197 helicopters would be done on a fast-track basis and the entire procurement completed by 2011. The minimum numbers of helicopters to be inducted will be 30 per year, beginning 24 months after the contract is signed.

As per the initial plans, the Ministry of Defence decided to evaluate technical bids and the trials are expected from February 2009.

The Indian government decided to rebid the program after canceling an initial plan in which EADS had emerged as the front-runner. The government took that step following allegations of a lack of transparency in the selection process by competitor Bell Helicopter.

A total of 384 helicopters are being procured for both the Air Force and Army. Of these, the current tender is for the purchase of 197 helicopters off the shelf while the remaining 187 would be manufactured in India by state-run Hindustan Aerospace under technology transfer.

India Delays Final Bid Date in Helo Purchase - Defense News

 

[Gabbar]

India to carry out trials to procure 197 light utility choppers ​

Paris (PTI): India is planning to carry out field trials for procuring 197 Light Utility Helicopters (LUH) for the Army and the Air Force in August this year.

"We are planning to carry out the flight evaluation trials for the 197 LUH contract in August this year but the schedule has not yet been finalised. Five vendors are expected to come up with their helicopters for the competition," Indian Defence Ministry officials told PTI here.

The five contenders participating in the contract include the Russian Kazan and Mil, American Sikorsky, Italian Finnmeccanica and European helicopter manufacturers Eurocopter.

The contract, expected to be worth around $3 billion, is one of the few defence contracts where the vendors are required to fulfill around 50 per cent offset obligations.

The offsets clause in the Defence Procurement Procedures makes it mandatory for the companies awarded such deals to invest a certain percentage of the contract's worth back in the Indian defence sector.

In March this year, all the five companies responded to the global Request for Proposal (RFP) issued by the Defence Ministry last year.

The RFP was sent to six companies, including American Bell Helicopters, but it had backed out of the race citing the high offset obligations required in the contract.

The RFP was released by the Defence Ministry after it had cancelled a previous contract in December 2007 for similar type and number of helicopters.

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.

"We would be sending a military version of the helicopter for the field trials for the contract," Eurocopter vice-president Rainer Farid told PTI during the Paris Air Show.

The flight trials will test the performance of the choppers in different geographical locations including high altitude, desert and plains in different weather conditions.

Of the 197 helicopters to be procured under the contract, 133 will be given to the Army and the rest would go to the IAF.

The 197 choppers will help the two services to replace their aging fleet of over 350 Cheetah and Chetak helicopters mostly flying in high altitude conditions in air maintenance roles there and for surveillance as well as search and rescue missions.

 

[Gabbar]

Eurocopter to field AS550 C3Fennec for army/air force LUH tender news

Le Bourget, Paris: Eurocopter will field the AS550 C3 Fennec military helicopter for trials in India's Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) joint tender for the Indian Army and air force. In a previous tender, since cancelled, it had fielded an AS350 civilian version of the helicopter, which had drawn protests from other contenders.

At the Paris Air Show, Norbert Ducrot, Eurocopter's senior vice-president for sales and customer relations in Asia Pacific, revealed that flight tests for the LUH tender were likely to commence shortly.

"This time, we have a military version of the Fennec that is ready to go on trial in India. We are waiting for the instructions and we expect the process to begin shortly. We do not know when a contract will be awarded but we are sure that we have the best product for India," he adds.

Last time around, in December 2007, the Indian ministry of defence had even announced Eurocopter as the winner of the tender and plans were afoot to sign the contract in the presence of visiting French president Nicolas Sarkozy, until shrill protests from the Americans forced the MoD to withdraw the award.

Eurocopter clarified that its civilian version, the AS350, was identical to the AS550 military version "in terms of airframe, systems, main gear box, rotor head, blades, engine and performances".

The company was subsequently cleared of any wrong-doing.

Of the 197 light utility helicopters sought by the two services, 133 are for the army and 64 for the air force. The MoD expects that deliveries will begin by the end of 2010 after year-long trials.

The contract is worth a potential $750 million.

State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has been asked to develop and manufacture another 187 light utility helicopters.

There is a separate tender out for 22 twin engine attack helicopters for the Indian Air Force, for which RFPs have been invited from AgustaWestland A129, Bell AH-1Z Cobra, Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow, Eurocopter Tiger, Kamov Ka-52 and Mil Mi-28.

The navy is also likely to firm up plans for anti-submarine warfare and naval reconnaissance helicopters.

India has also ordered 80 Mil Mi-17-V5 transport helicopters, and has commenced induction of the HAL Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter.

 

[sancho]

Le Bourget, Paris: Eurocopter will field the AS550 C3 Fennec military helicopter for trials in India's Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) joint tender for the Indian Army and air force.

Which other helicopters will be in the competition? Could we use the Shakti engine in this and HAL's LOH too, or could there be a similar co-developed engine? The more commonality both aircrafts have, the easier will be logistics and maintenance.
Any new news or pics of the light observation helicopter?

 

[hal-fgfa]

hey any news about hal- loh

 

[sancho]

hey any news about hal- loh

The latest was that HAL is not looking for any partner anymore, not even for the engine. They will seems to be confident enough after Dhruv and now LCH to do so. The helicopter development part of HAL is really good and going exactly the right ways, wished they would do the same with LCA.

 

[hal-fgfa]

The latest was that HAL is not looking for any partner anymore, not even for the engine. They will seems to be confident enough after Dhruv and now LCH to do so. The helicopter development part of HAL is really good and going exactly the right ways, wished they would do the same with LCA.

i think that LCA mk2 come before any MRCA aircraft come to india

wish i come true