Friday, October 7, 2011

EXCLUSIVE! Defense Acquisition Council meet today has lots on agenda- Another FMS request on way soon to U.S government?

Neelam Mathews
Oct 7, 2011
Time- 1:39pm IST

The DAC that is to meet this afternoon, has a busy agenda, Aerospace Diary learns.

Once the minutes of the last DAC, requested by the Defense Minister are circulated this afternoon, a request for FMS to the U.S government for the Honeywell engine for the Jaguar (presently being retrofitted) is expected to be released within a month.

Defense minister A.K Antony had asked to ensure that DRDO confirmed (in writing) the timeline for the engine was too short to develop it and the IAF confirm it was required ASAP.

The replacement of 56 Avros is on the table too. The note presented says the bid will have 16 in the 'Buy' category and 40 'Buy and Make'. The project is valued at Rs 14,586 crores. 

Interestingly, there is no mention in the agenda that the project will be only addressed to the private sector, which might be a dampener to the recent private sector consortia that was in dialogue with the IAF. An official close to the subject tells Aerospace Diary, it is likely “the idea was hijacked by a government PSU.”

Besides the much advertised MMRCA , the meeting will clear the way for opening of commercial bids. 

The new proposed offsets policy that has some subjects of contention including upping the offsets commitment from 30% to 40% with multipliers, is also to be discussed.

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