Indian MoD to decide fate of 197 chopper tender

[SpArK]

Indian MoD to decide fate of 197 chopper tender
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NEW DELHI (PTI): The Indian Defence Ministry is expected to soon decide the fate of a deal to procure 197 light utility helicopters for the Army and Air Force after complaints were received about alleged deviations in tender norms during user trials of the participating companies.


Two companies including European Eurocopter and Russian Kamov are participating in the tender for supplying light helicopters to the two forces for replacing the fleet of vintage Cheetah/ Chetak choppers procured in the 1970s.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister A K Antony is expected to discuss the issue soon as a committee formed to look into the complaints of deviation from tender clauses has submitted its report with the Ministry, sources said here.

They said the Special Technical Oversight Committee (STOC) under Lt Gen was formed by the DAC to look into the complaints from one of the companies rejected at an earlier stage.

The STOC has now submitted its report and the DAC will examine in it in near future and will decide if the deviations can be accepted or not. If they are not acceptable, the tender can also be scrapped, they said.

"After going through everything, if anything goes wrong we will again cancel it," Antony said.

The induction of these 197 choppers, of which over 130 will go to the army and the remaining will be operated by the air force, has already been delayed by over four years as a previous tender in this regard had to be cancelled at the last stage after certain problems in the process.

One of the three companies to receive the RFP was Agusta Westland and was ejected out of the race by the army due to its non-compliance with service requirements.


Indian MoD to decide fate of 197 chopper tender - Brahmand.com

 

[Hulk]

Which one do you think should win?

 

[Abingdonboy]

Fennec all the way^^

 

[Perceptron]

Fennec all the way^^

Wasn't the Eurocopter found deficient in the roles of passenger evacuation and casualty constraints as well as limited trials in High Altitude ? The report here points to the above points. The Army's wait to replace old helicopters gets longer by day.

The oversight panel will have to take a number of issues into consideration.

It has been alleged that during trials it was found that there was no place in the helicopter for the evacuation of passengers.

It was also alleged that it is difficult to fit a stretcher into the cabin of the Eurocopter helicopter.

The company, it was claimed, later informed the ministry that it would provide bulged doors for evacuation in case of casualties.

The defence ministry has taken a serious note of these observations, particularly the issues related to the bulged doors and that they have never been tried in high altitude environment.

 

[subincb]

Hope they abandon this process of LUH and develop LUH in house. HAL has demonstrated ability to design and put in air LCH in 3 years and LUH could get IOC may be by that time too.. I don't think Cheetahs are in desperate need to be replaced and HAL is still building them. SInce LUH is not gonna replace any choppers in IAF and Army they could wait or use available Dhruvs till then. Already I guess we operate a huge number of helos and Apache, LCH, WSI-Dhruv, Chinook/mi-26 to join soon plus the MRH for navy..

 

[Abingdonboy]

Hope they abandon this process of LUH and develop LUH in house. HAL has demonstrated ability to design and put in air LCH in 3 years and LUH could get IOC may be by that time too.. I don't think Cheetahs are in desperate need to be replaced and HAL is still building them. SInce LUH is not gonna replace any choppers in IAF and Army they could wait or use available Dhruvs till then. Already I guess we operate a huge number of helos and Apache, LCH, WSI-Dhruv, Chinook/mi-26 to join soon plus the MRH for navy..

Time is critical though and as of yet the HAL LOH/LUH hasn't even completed its first flight.