Three decades on, defence minister clears Rs 15,750 crore howitzer project - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday sought to revive the Army's moribund artillery modernization project, which has miserably failed to take off ever since the infamous Bofors scandal of the mid-1980s, but deferred decisions on two crucial aircraft projects to next month.
The defence acquisitions council (DAC), chaired for the first time by Manohar Parrikar, gave initial clearance to the Rs 15,750 crore project to acquire 814 mounted artillery gun systems or motorized howitzers to plug critical gaps in the Army's long-range, high-volume firepower.
Officials said the two big-ticket IAF projects, in turn, will now be considered in the next DAC meeting on December 9/10 since Parrikar, just two weeks old as the defence minister, wanted more information and time to better acquaint himself with the complex defence procurement procedures.
The DAC had to decide whether to go ahead with the Rs 13,000 crore mega project for the private sector to supply 56 medium transport aircraft to replace IAF's ageing Avro fleet despite only a single bidder, the Tata-Airbus consortium, being in the fray. The second IAF case was the around Rs 7,000 crore acquisition of 106 more Swiss Pilatus PC-7 basic trainer aircraft, with bulk of them produced domestically, to help train rookie pilots, as reported by TOI earlier.
The DAC did approve the revised payment schedule for the nine "nodes" and 10 "subnodes" of the IAF's integrated air command and control system (IACCS) being set up in the country for Rs 7,160 crore. While five nodes are already in place, with integration of air and ground radars, four more will now come up to address the lack of radar coverage over central and peninsular India as well as Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
A fresh tender or RFP (request for proposal) will now be issued for the 155mm/52-calibre mounted artillery in the "Buy & Make India" category, with 100 guns to be bought off-the-shelf and the rest 714 to be subsequently manufactured in India. If the guns had been bought a decade ago, as was envisaged, they would have cost half of the Rs 15,750 crore figure.
"Private companies like L&T, Tata, Bharat Forge, Punj Lloyd, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra Defence and the like can respond to the RFP after tying up with a foreign collaborator. The 814 guns, with a 40-km range, will equip 40 medium artillery regiments of the Army," said an official.
NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday sought to revive the Army's moribund artillery modernization project, which has miserably failed to take off ever since the infamous Bofors scandal of the mid-1980s, but deferred decisions on two crucial aircraft projects to next month.
The defence acquisitions council (DAC), chaired for the first time by Manohar Parrikar, gave initial clearance to the Rs 15,750 crore project to acquire 814 mounted artillery gun systems or motorized howitzers to plug critical gaps in the Army's long-range, high-volume firepower.
Officials said the two big-ticket IAF projects, in turn, will now be considered in the next DAC meeting on December 9/10 since Parrikar, just two weeks old as the defence minister, wanted more information and time to better acquaint himself with the complex defence procurement procedures.
The DAC had to decide whether to go ahead with the Rs 13,000 crore mega project for the private sector to supply 56 medium transport aircraft to replace IAF's ageing Avro fleet despite only a single bidder, the Tata-Airbus consortium, being in the fray. The second IAF case was the around Rs 7,000 crore acquisition of 106 more Swiss Pilatus PC-7 basic trainer aircraft, with bulk of them produced domestically, to help train rookie pilots, as reported by TOI earlier.
The DAC did approve the revised payment schedule for the nine "nodes" and 10 "subnodes" of the IAF's integrated air command and control system (IACCS) being set up in the country for Rs 7,160 crore. While five nodes are already in place, with integration of air and ground radars, four more will now come up to address the lack of radar coverage over central and peninsular India as well as Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
A fresh tender or RFP (request for proposal) will now be issued for the 155mm/52-calibre mounted artillery in the "Buy & Make India" category, with 100 guns to be bought off-the-shelf and the rest 714 to be subsequently manufactured in India. If the guns had been bought a decade ago, as was envisaged, they would have cost half of the Rs 15,750 crore figure.
"Private companies like L&T, Tata, Bharat Forge, Punj Lloyd, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra Defence and the like can respond to the RFP after tying up with a foreign collaborator. The 814 guns, with a 40-km range, will equip 40 medium artillery regiments of the Army," said an official.
