Indian Build Up

[Bull]

Sarsawa, November 4
With a new engine and a weapons pack, the indigenous Dhruv advance light helicopter is set to attain new heights.

The IAF’s first helicopter unit to induct the Dhruv will shortly commence regular operations to Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield.

According to Air Force officers, the 117 Helicopter Unit, which has recently converted to the Dhruv, will start flying to Siachen within four months.

The unit, christened Himalayan Dragons, is carrying out extensive training to make its air crew fully operational on the twin-engine Dhruvs.

The squadron is also getting four more helicopters to add to its strength.

Dhruv’s manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), is also going in for a new engine, which will improve its performance in high altitude.

Christened Shakti, it will be between 12 and 15 per cent more powerful than the existing TM-333 engine and increase its pay load capability by around 300 kg.

The new engine has been developed in collaboration with France, where it has undergone tests.

Trials in India are scheduled for December or January and if all goes well, production is expected to begin next year.

The performance of Dhruv in high altitude is claimed to be good for its size and weight, but there have been problems at an altitude of 7 km, about as high as Mount Everest.

While Dhruv helicopters, of which about 66 are in service in the armed forces, are unarmed, the armed versions are ready and delivery is scheduled to begin next year.

The IAF and the Army are going in for armed versions, which will boost capability of rotor-wing components.

The Navy, according to sources, is yet to put forth its requirements for the armed Dhruv.

The Defence Ministry accepted the requirement for an additional 39 such choppers for the Army last month, the orders for which would be placed on the HAL shortly.

The Army has three squadrons of Dhruvs.

Dhruv is also being bought by Chile in a deal which is estimated to be around Rs 300 crore.

 

[Bull]

In a major step forward, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided to induct Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) for better surveillance and targeting of enemy movements.

Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi told India Strategic magazine that the IAF had "completed" its planned induction of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) required for surveillance and will now go in for the armed variety called UCAVs.

"We do not have them yet, but in due course we need to acquire them due to the emerging symmetric and asymmetric threats," the air chief said in the interview, an advance copy of which has been made available said.

UAVs carry only cameras and sensors to detect movement of aircraft, vehicles and men.

He did not give details but said the IAF was aiming at precision delivery of weapons to minimize collateral damage on the one hand and to maximize destruction of a target on the other on all its aircraft, whether manned or unmanned. The UCAVs, armed with precision weapons, would enhance that capability.

An advantage of the UCAVs is that they can loiter around on routine patrols. Once their cameras or sensors detect an already programmed threat, or if they are directed towards a perceived threat, they can immediately engage it and neutralize it.

Whatever the type of war or hostilities, the IAF's endeavour would be to reduce the "Sensor-to-Shooter" time, and that is where the UCAV capability would play a big role, the air chief said.

An air force, he observed, is the first to engage a threat. Whether it is aircraft, sensors, missiles or UAVs/UCAs being inducted or considered by the IAF, Air Headquarters had one objective in mind: air dominance.

Tyagi also disclosed that the IAF had "completed" its induction of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) "on schedule."

"The IAF has operationalised its UAV systems" which "are being employed to carry out a variety of missions". In fact, he added, IAF has been using the UAVs for some time and "it is now in the process of integrating them with various combat platforms to help generate a common picture and to reduce the sensor-to-shooter time."

The integration of the IAF's assets, through net centricity and advanced communications, including through space, would multiply the force's punch manifold.

Tyagi said that any threat to the country was to be tackled by all the three services. Accordingly, steps were under way to share and complement one another's resources.

It may be noted that all the three services - the army, the navy and the air force - were using UAVs, which were all procured from Israel. Commonality of platforms makes them cheaper and easier to maintain.

But if trends at the recent Farnborough air show are an indicator, various firms from the US and Britain are also offering UAVs to India, particularly as their requirement is bound to grow in the coming years.

Although not cheap, a UAV or UCAV is expendable, unlike a combat jet that has to be manned by an experienced pilot.

As for space, Tyagi said that while the IAF was keen on an Aerospace Command as a natural progression of its assets, the subject was still under discussion among the three services.

"Single ownership is not cost-effective. Space assets will be Indian... We will use them, they will use them.

"We are finalizing arrangements with the army and navy for building and sharing space assets. Once the discussions are over, an (inter-service) proposal would be forwarded to the ministry of defence for implementation."

"Use of space is important," he added, pointing out that the IAF had created a space cell for the first time, and that "steps have been, and are being, implemented for net centric and space-enabled force enhancement capabilities towards real time management of battle space and integration of aerial and ground assets."

Air Vice Marshal DC Kumaria heads the Space Cell.

Tyagi said the IAF had adopted an incremental approach and was likely to recommend the setting up of an independent body called Aerospace Group, "ultimately evolving into an Aerospace Command which, I believe, should have a tri-service structure."

Notably, all the three services are looking for their own satellites, although with clear-cut integration of space assets.

 

[Bull]

Bull,

An interesting article I ran into today:

Thanks mate, i just saw this today.

 

[Bull]

Bangalore, Nov 7: The blue water Indian Navy will have more operational flexibility when the unique ship-lift and transfer system for dry docking of ships at integrated Naval base INS Kadamba at Karwar will be formally inaugurated on Wednesday November 8.

With this, the turnaround time for ship repairs at the Naval Ship Repair Yard (NSRY) will come down considerably. “Its an exclusive facility, which is quite swift and ships will be ready for action within a very short span of time,” a senior Navy officer told this paper.

The ship-lift is capable of lifting upto 10,000 tonne vessels of 175m x 28 m sizes. The port will be able to accommodate 42 ships. In later stages, even ships from other nations can also come to one of the cleanest ports in the world to use the facility.

In the conventional system; ‘graving dock’ ships occupy the docking facility for nearly 45 days. They were docked and water is emptied from there, before the repair work can be taken up.

The new dry-docking facility will ensure that ships are lifted from the water and sent to the repair yard in just a day or two. In simple terms, the shiplift is a large elevator platform which can be lowered into water, have a ship hauled in and positioned over the cradles preset on the platform and then lifted vertically to the ground level so that the ship can be moved from the platform onto a dry berth on land.

The NSRY, which commenced its operations on November 14, 2005, is being commanded by Commander S M Rajeshwar. The dry-docking facility is a new addition to the Navy base, which is flanked by beautiful bays and islands on one side and the picturesque Western Ghats on the other.

The Naval base with its state-of-the art maintenance facility will house most of the frontline ‘destroyers,’ missile frigates and the only aircraft carrier in the Indian Navy, INS Virat.

Aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, which India is planning to acquire, will also be anchored at the new base, sources said. The Russian made aircraft carrier, which the Navy plans to christen INS Vikramaditya, is almost one-and-half times bigger than INS Virat.

The base is all set to become the flag-bearer of Indian Navy and will also emerge as the hub of Navy’s activities in future as other bases in the country are crowded and do not have much scope for expansion.

 

[Contrarian]

The base is all set to become the flag-bearer of Indian Navy and will also emerge as the hub of Navy’s activities in future as other bases in the country are crowded and do not have much scope for expansion.

There is ANOTHER base such as karwar comming up in teh east coast.Is supposed to be EVEN better than karwar.Was an article some time back.The western Command wanted a state of the art base..so one came up at karwar.Now the eastern command wants a state of the art flagship base on the east coast, so one is being made there, land acquistions have been half completed.Will take time though.

Imagine, one base such as karwar in west, one in east, apart from the already existing numerous bases's. And the sethusamudram prject with which the Navy can combine its west and east fleet in half the time it used to previously take. During one of the wars , teh navvy claimed it could combine its fleets on any coast within 24 hours.So i think it should be 12 hours now. Plus the enormous commercial benifits of the project.Ships would not have to go around Srilanka to goto east india or china or japan.Also it the Sethusamudram project can provide a safe place for the rowing number of Indian submarines. A hiding place/safe harbour.

All these things combined would surely make the Indian Ocean, more under Indian and less Chinese control.

 

[Bull]

As the construction of the first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) is on a smooth course, naval engineers have readied plans to construct two additional home-made aircraft carriers to make the Indian navy a ‘three-carrier navy’.

At the Cochin Shipyard Ltd, heavy machineries are being put in place to undertake the navy’s most ambitious project – manufacturing the 37,500 tonnes IAC to carry fighter planes and helicopters – from the scratch in another six years at a cost of Rs 3261crore.

The two existing aircraft carriers – INS Virat and INS Vikrant are from the UK. A third Russian carrier INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) is likely to be commissioned by 2008.



While INS Vikrant joined the services in the early 1960s and has been made a museum after more than two decades in service. INS Virat was commissioned in 1987.

“The manufacturing facilities now being put in place would not only be for making only one aircraft carrier. The navy has a long term plan of making two more. INS Virat can serve for another 6 to 7 years during which the final decision on constructing additional carriers can be made,” said a Navy officer.

Steel cutting have taken place in the IAC project, formerly known as air defence ship. According to the designs made at the Directorate of Naval Design (DND), the 840 ft ship will have 30 fighter planes and helicopters, out of which 17 can be accommodated in the hanger.

For the fighter fleets, the options are MiG-29K, naval version of the light combat aircraft, Sea Harrier, advanced light helicopter and Russian Kamov-31 helicopters. While there will be foreign consultations in a few areas, the naval engineers claimed the design to be completely indigenous. Only three other nations have built such a large carrier in the past.

“Besides the ambitious project, the navy is constructing three new destroyers, each weighing 6640 tonnes at the Mazgaon docks in Mumbai,” said Commodore K N Vaidyanathan, principle director of naval design at the DND. The organisation will complete its 50th anniversary on November 17.

The decision to make these three new destroyers has been taken following the success of the three Delhi-class destroyers, which are INS Delhi, INS Mysore and INS Mumbai.

 

[Bull]

Express News Service

Kolkata, November 14: INS Shardul, the third Landing Ship Tank of the Indian Navy after INS Magar and INS Gharial and the first of a new class, was handed over to the Indian Navy on 3 November. Credit, however, goes to Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, the premier Indian defence shipyard, that has added another feather in its cap. Shardul boasts of an indigenous content of over 90 per cent with state-of-the-art equipment.

It will be having two WM 18 Rocket Launcher Mountings manufactured by Larson & Toubro and CRN 91 guns, made in Secunderabad, capable of firing 550 rounds. Its military lift includes 11 armoured tanks and 10 army vehicles escalating its carrying capacity to 760 tonnes. It can carry about 200 troops for longer duration and about 500 for shorter ones.



The total cost of manufacture of INS Shardul has been estimated at around Rs 400 crore. In addition to this, two more ships are to be launched in the next couple of years. The director, Ship Building, Vinod Kumar, said the ship is being readied to head towards its home port at Karwar, Goa.

Shardul has a total complement of 11 officers and 145 sailors. Each department is headed by a departmental officer who functions under respective heads of departments.

The primary role of this ship is to transport troops, vehicles and armaments for amphibious operations and accomplish all objectives of landing, that is, beaching operations, transport combat equipment and personnel to Amphibious Objective Area. It has the capability of launching of marine commandos through sea and also by helicopters for vertical envelopment besides undertaking aerial evacuation of the casualties.

The crest of INS Shardul depicts a roaring Royal Bengal Tiger against a sky blue background. To sum up its commissioning, Commanding Officer Cdr Anil J Joseph, likes to call it a “troop-carrier”. No wonder why he terms INS Shardul as a “warship with a difference”.

 

[Bull]

Chandigarh, November 13
The IAF is upgrading its existing fighter aircraft to maintain their combat potential in the absence of new inductions. Stating this here today, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, Air Marshal A.K.Singh, said that requests for proposals (RFP) for the 126 multi-role aircraft required by the IAF had still not been issued.

"It would take seven or eight years after the deal has been cleared to build up force levels. To meet requirements in the meantime till then, the existing fleet is being modernised to make it compatible with the new generation fighters," he said.

The Air Marshal was on an inspection visit to the MiG-27/29 TETTRA School at the Air Force High Grounds.

He said that one squadron of the MiG-27 had been upgraded. The upgradation of the MiG-29 is in the pipeline, while the MiG-21 Bison upgrade was well underway, he added.

He said the IAF had introduced computer-based training on a large scale, where computer simulations are used to teach various subjects. The IAF is also evolving its own training procedures as original equipment manufactures are reluctant to part with certain technical details of equipment.

On the Siachen demilitarisation issue, he said we must demarcate the area before any withdrawal takes place so as to avoid counter claims at a later stage.

Earlier, the Air Marshal was briefed about training programmes and other activities of the TETTRA school by the Station Commander, Gp Capt B.K. Sood..

He also visited various sections of the school, newly set up MiG-29 training complex and the X-ray model of the MiG-27.

Air Marshal Singh also interacted with a batch of six Sri Lankan technicians who are here on a training course on the MiG-27. The Sri Lankan air force is purchasing four MiG-27 aircraft from Russia and these airmen have been sent here for advanced training.

This is the third batch from Sri Lanka to be trained on this aircraft here.

Meanwhile, president of the Air Force Wives Welfare Association (Regional), Mrs Priya Singh was briefed about the welfare activities by the local president, Mrs Preetika Sood. A special ladies meet was also held.

 

[Bull]

The Indian Navy, dependent on foreign technology for its warships for long, has developed the capability of designing nuclear-powered vessels and building an indigenous submarine, top naval designers said here today.

The country has "developed the capability" but it was for the government to decide whether or not to go ahead with the building of such strategic vessels, said Capt C S Rao and Commodore RN Vadiyanathan, Principal Directors of the Naval Design Bureau.

Briefing newsmen on the upcoming golden jubilee celebrations of the design bureau -- the only facility of its kind among the three services -- Vadiyanathan said the building of Scorpene-class submarines has begun and from the third submarine onwards, the indigenious content would be scaled up.

The government had cleared a 30-year submarine building programme and after the completion of the Scorpene project, it may decide to go in for an "indegenious underwater vessel", the two top naval designers said.

But they did not not comment on progress in the indigenious nuclear submarine project, christened the Advanced Technology Vessel.

Besides developing capability for building aircraft carriers and submarines, the navy has made immense strides in developing stealth technology that is being used in the three Shivalak-class warships being built at a state-run shipyard, Vadiyanathan and Rao said.

"We have 35 warships in various stages of development. These range from stealth ships to destroyers, frigates, anti- submarine vessels, landing ships for tanks and corvettes," Vadiyanathan said.
One of the most outstanding achievements of the indigenious warship building programme was the development of the Delhi-class of guided missile destroyers with a displacement of 6,500 tonnes. These were among the most potent vessels in the naval strike force.

"We have not rested on our oars," the designer claimed and said work was underway on uprgaded versions on these destoryers, to be called the Kolkota-class.

Both Rao and Vadiyanathan said their "crowning glory" was the work on the first indigenious aircraft carrier, which is yet to be named.

This was the largest design project of the country, they said, asserting the carrier would be indigenious with some technical consultancy being outsourced abroad.

There are "no hiccups" in the project and the carrier is on schedule to be delivered to the navy by 2012. A follow-on order for at least one more carrier is expected.

The carrier will have a flying deck that can accommodate 30 aircraft -- 13 fighters and the 17 helicopters. It will have a mix of Mig-29K jets bought from Russia, the naval version of LCA and medium and light helicopters.

 

[Bull]

Leading global defence planners and financial managers today said India would continue to be major arms purchaser but needed to streamline arms spending and procedures to catch up with new trends.

Gathering for the first time on the Indian soil, defence economists, policy makers and leading strategists suggested that India had to frame policies to benefit from spinoffs from arms acquisition.

The spinoffs would come in the form of frontline technology transfers, a better maintenance system in the form of life-cycle support system of armament platforms and flow of offests to both the country's still fledgling defence industry and to social sector.

The platform for the defence spending planners and economists was provided by the holding of first-ever International Seminar on Defence Finance and Economics by the Ministry of Defence.

Throwing open the three-day seminar which will focus on issues like international military manpower trends, policy of offsets in arms puchases, life cycle support systems for armament systems, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the delibrations would trigger "globalisation of strategic thinking".

Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his special address visualised a greater role for the private sector in Defence production and made it clear that loss making Defence Public sector undertakings could not not keep on depending on Government bailouts.

Noting that "warfare is becoming more and more technology driven with rising costs of weapon acquisitions and manpower training and development", Chidambaram told country's defence planners that what the country needed was an effective defence financial management system.

"The country's security requires the best with little room for error and slippages", he said adding that some of the best practices and innoviations in financial management had come out from the defence sector.

Advocating greater private sector role in arms industry, the Finance Minister said policy changes to allow them to play such a role had been put in practice and this private-public sector linkages should enable scale up of defence production.

These spinoffs could see defence emerging as one of the key growth drivers in the country, he said.

Finance Minister also called for enforcing cash management system already prevalent in civil ministries in the defence sector too as it would lead to reduction of bunching of expenditure towards the end of the financial year and eliminate wastage and inefficency.

"Knowledge of latest procedures, negotiation strategies, contract management and project management practices must percolate down to field level to shift from transaction based system to an integrated system that uses latest technology," he said.

New Delhi, Nov 13 (PTI) Government today sounded a warning to defence production and research establishments that long delays and heavy cost overruns in projects were not not sustainable.

"Defence budget has to guided by realism", the Finance Minister P Chidambaram said impressing that defence spending had to be monitored so that funds were utilised for the priorities that had been laid down in strategic plans.

"No cost and time overuns" can be tolerated, the minister told a gathering of country's top defence officials, global defence economists and straegists here attending the first ever International seminar on Defence Finance and Economics, organised by the Ministry of Defence.

Chidambaram's comments come in the wake of renewed complaints against Defence Research and Development Organisation was not delivering on its promises.

The Finance Minister also had hard some tough words for the Defence Public Sector undertakings and Ordnance factories telling them loss-making enterprises could not keep on depending on bailouts.

"The arguement that the Government in all circumstances must support loss making undertakings or inefficent ordnance factories becau se of their strategic importance or surge capacities is difficult to sustain in an increasingly globalised world," he said .



Over 475 delegates from 27 countries as well from within the country are attending the three-day long seminar, which was inaugrated by the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

In his address, Mukherjee indicated that the country's defence spending of 2.3 per of the GDP would be maintained in the coming years, implying that arms and strategic systems purchasing would continue.

"It is a harsh reality that defence expenditure involves huge outlays and acquisitions," the External Affairs Minister said pointing out these assume significance because of unfathomable dangers arising from proliferation of nuclear technologies over the years and capabilities acquired by international terrorist organisations.

 

[Neo]

India to test N-capable missile Sunday

BALASORE : November 18, 2006: Indian defence scientists are all set to test-fire the nuclear-capable, air force version of the surface-to-surface missile, Prithvi-II, on Sunday from a base in Orissa, defence sources said.

The test comes four months after the failed test firing of the intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) Agni-III.

The scientists are not taking any chances for Sunday's test from the integrated test range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea, nearly 14 km from here and about 150 km from Orissa capital Bhubaneswar, and there were indications that the preparations had been underway for over a month.

"This missile will be test-fired from a mobile launcher from the Launching Complex 3 in the ITR campus. And we hope the countdown will be started as per the schedule," a defence scientist told IANS, requesting anonymity.

 

[Neo]

Indian air force jet crashes

NEW DELHI: November 22, 2006: An Indian air force MiG-29 fighter jet crashed on Tuesday in the western state of Gujarat, but the pilot managed to bail out safely, an air force spokesman said.

The aircraft crashed near the Jamnagar air force base shortly after take-off, Squadron Leader Mahesh Upasani said.

"The pilot was on a routine night training mission. As of now, we have no reports of damage to life or property," Upasani said.

"The pilot is safe. The air force has ordered a court of enquiry to investigate the cause of the crash." The Indian air force's ageing fleet has been plagued by crashes, particularly Russian-made MiG-21s.

 

[Contrarian]

Indian Air Chief Offers to Upgrade Burmese Air Force
Daily News & Updates
Dated 24/11/2006
Printer Friendly Subscribe

Indian air force chief SP Tyagi offered Burmese military strongman Snr-Gen Than Shwe a comprehensive air force modernization package during a visit to Burma this week.

Air Chief Marshal Tyagi offered to sell Indian-made advanced light helicopters that can be used as gunships against insurgent forces and for ferrying military quick-reaction teams—small groups of highly skilled special units that can strike at rebel units with complete surprise.

Indian army chief Gen JJ Sing, during an earlier visit to Burma, had offered to train Burmese army special forces in counter insurgency operations.

Retired Indian major general Gaganjit Singh, who interacted with the Burmese generals during his long tenure in counter-insurgency operations in Northeast India, said the Indian army has achieved success in Kashmir and the northeast with their quick reaction teams and the Burmese generals were quite impressed.

"The Burmese military has shown keen interest in the helicopters developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and we are keen to sell them," said a staff officer who accompanied Air Chief Marshal Tyagi to Burma. The officer did not want to be named.

He said Tyagi impressed on Than Shwe "the importance of air power in contemporary warfare" and offered advice on how to strengthen Burma's air force.

"The chief offered them a comprehensive fighter upgrade program that would include the transfer of the latest avionics, surveillance electronics and airborne radio equipment," he said. "Tyagi also offered to sell radar manufactured by Bart Heavy Electronics Limited (BHEL)."

The meeting between the Indian air force chief and Than Shwe took place on Tuesday at Burma's new administrative capital, Naypyidaw, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Rangoon. The Rangoon media has given no details of Tyagi's visit.

The Burmese army, Tatmadaw, has battled a host of rebel armies for several decades and has sought to bolster its counter-insurgency capabilities, possibly with helicopter gunships. India does not use helicopter gunships in its counter-insurgency operations but no doubt would not be disappointed if the Burmese use them against Indian rebel bases in the remote Sagaing division of Western Burma

India recently gave Burma a pair of Naval BN-2 Islander short-range surveillance aircraft, despite stiff opposition by Great Britain, the original manufacturer of the aircraft.

India sees itself in a race with China to tap Burma's vast natural resources to fuel its economic expansion. It is also trying to reduce Burma's dependence on China for military hardware. Delhi has also offered to sell frigates and other combat vessels to the Burmese navy.

http://www.india-defence.com/reports/2699

 

[Contrarian]

EADS to invest 2 billion euros in Indian defense sector
Daily News & Updates
Printer Friendly Subscribe

European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co (EADS) is all set to invest 2 billion euros in production and research facilities in India over the next 15 years, the Financial Times Deutschland reported citing an EADS spokesperson.

EADS is currently only present in India through its Airbus unit, but the group hopes to do business in the field of military technology, the paper reported.

EADS's Eurocopter unit is planning to cooperate with with India's HAL to develop a new type of military helicopter, the newspaper reported, citing sources.

This project is to be unveiled next week, when EADS co-CEO Tom Enders will be travelling to India alongside German economy minister Michael Glos, it added.

http://www.india-defence.com/reports/2390

 

[Contrarian]

New directives for Indian defense purchases

As the country moves towards the threshold of floating international tenders for mega armament acquisitions worth billions of dollars, watchdog Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has issued new directives on defence purchases.

Under the directives, CVC has asked the Defence Ministry to avoid single-vendor situations in any deal except in very exceptional cicumstances, and inclusion of Standard Contract terms in Request for Proposals.

The Commission has also told the defence ministry not to deviate or dilute qualitative requirements after the request for proposals has been made.

The CVC directive comes as the Defence Ministry is about to float international tenders for purchase of 126 multi-role combat aircraft, a deal which industry sources say could be biggest ever deal by India, running up to or more than USD 15 billion.

It is not the only mega defence deal coming up. In another big-ticket deal worth more than USD 700 million, the Army is to sign an agreement for purchase of 197 helicopters to replace its ageing fleet of Chetaks and Cheetahs.

Two firms, Bell Helicopter of the US and European consortium EADS, the owner of Eurocopter, have been short-listed and evaluated.

Another big ticket deal would be for the purchase of new 155mm guns upgraded to 52 calibres. India is opting to buy 400 of these upgraded guns whose induction is almost 12 years behind schedule.

The army has already conducted three test trials and an unprecedented fourth one is currently on between the Swedish Bofors guns and Israeli Soltam guns.

Pointing out repeated failures and losses incurred by the defence ministry in not conforming to its laid out purchase norms, CVC has made it mandatory that in all new deals, the ministry ensures advances are paid to suppliers against bank guarantees confirmed by select Indian banks.

CVC has directed that performance bonds and warranty bonds are also taken after similar confirmation. The defence ministry, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General, has lost crores of rupees in transactions with Russian suppliers by not taking bank guarantees and performance bonds.

The Commission has also made it mandatory that all offers be solicited from original equipment manufacturers and prohibited the engagement of any agent or payment of agency commission by the seller.

It has also told the government to include in the defence procurement manual transparent requests for proposals both from indigenous and foreign procurements with clear pre-qualification, short-listing and contract award criteria.

Further, CVC has also said that there should be clear timeframes for each stage of contract processing to cut delays and bring in accountability.

Both the CVC and Comptroller and Auditor General have been unsparing in their criticism of the defence ministry getting into single vendor situations.

They have sharply criticised the previous NDA government for entering into single-vendor deals like those for purchasing the SU-30MKI, T-90s and advanced trainers.

http://www.india-defence.com/reports/2423