197 Copter Deal Has To Be Examined: IAF Chief

The 197 reconnaissance & surveillance helicopter bid will be “examined” by the Defence Acquisition Council before  decision is made on forward movement, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Norman Browne has said. In response to a direct question about whether the competition would be “re-assessed” or “scrapped”, the IAF chief said “Re-assessment and scrapped are two different things. However, the DAC has to examine the whole case. It will examine all aspects of the case”. Asked if this included examining the possibility of a re-tender, the IAF chief said, “It will examine all aspects of the case.”
The Eurocopter AS 550 C3 Fennec and Kamov Ka-226T Sergei await word on the competition, and have become increasingly desperate for guidance on where things are going. More here.

6 thoughts on “197 Copter Deal Has To Be Examined: IAF Chief”

  1. PC has put an end to ambiguity by cutting the defence spending by 10k crore. The message for all the chiefs is not to delay the projects and take their sweet time otherwise politicians will axe it.

  2. It seems they are finding it difficult to place order on their favoured supplier. The other possibility is that there has been a procedural lapse. In both cases the tender will have to be refloated. The Imported Air Force probably prefers Paris trips to Moscow trips.

  3. @nikdash

    Are you going to drive an SUV if you are suppose to drive a vehicle for a specific purpose? think about operation cost maintenance and equipment life. Every equipment has a lifetime, you can not exhaust it for the role a smaller equipment can do.

  4. @Int64

    We need LUH because we had LUH is nonsense. We should prepare for tomorrow's wars, not yesterdays.

    Man-portable anti air missiles will make mincemeat of these 'beauties' if they even venture close to hostile territories. Why send our personnel on suicide missions. Remember 'Kargil' where helicopter vulnerability was clearly exposed. These missions are reserved for UAV data linked to high altitude guided bomb carriers like MKI or Rustom or stand off missile units like Pinaka.

    Support and mule missions had to be done with LUH because our current inventory cannot go to Siachen heights. But with Dhruv we can carry more supplies higher than before:)

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