Opinion- Life Cycle Costs are essential

Neelam Mathews

April 16, 2013

 While I have no love lost for politicians –no matter what their affiliations are- one would

have expected the likes of Yashwant Sinha to have bothered to understand the value of life cycle costs (LCC) before turning his verbal rocket on the concept in Parliament and elsewhere.

For a change, the Congress has done something right by including LCC in RFPs and adding post contractual maintenance, and we must applaud it. Unless ofcourse, we want to continue moving as we did in the days of yore and be held ransom to OEMs that charge the earth for spares and maintenance- something that continues to happen with legacy fighters even today. The proof is apparent. Of the five recent crashes of the IAF, three were due to technical faults related to maintenance and spares, AerospaceDiary learns, but could not confirm.

One hopes the presentation given by Air Chief NAK Browne in parliament over a week ago, will have opened the eyes and ears of all members who may unwittingly (or not) scuttle India’s progress and interest.

We have paid long enough through loss of lives of our valiant warriors. Please…no more.