Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews May 4, 2013 Neelam Mathews May 4, 2013 With approval given by the defense procurement apex body, Defense Acquisition Council (DAC), the Indian Air Force is set to release a (repeat) Request for Proposal for nine aircraft along with systems for airborne Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Communications Jamming (COMJAM), ground survey and target towing within a month.  An RFP released four years ago shortlisted Israel Aircraft Industries with an 8-seater G-200 and Embraer 145, both offering the Elta Airborne Integrated Signal Intelligence System (AISIS). Delays in the offset policy resulted in price escalation by the OEM, which was not accepted by the ministry of defense, leading to cancellation of the bid. “Now five years later, the cost will be much higher given the changed specs and also a highly depreciated rupee,” a vendor says. The new RFP requires a larger aircraft to provide for ten seating passengers in a cabin. IAI, if it participates, wi...

Neelam Mathews Dec 9, 2012

Neelam Mathews May 31, 2012 India is rightly earning the acronymn of “the master of delays.” The bid – the second time round after the first one in 2008- for procuring 197 light utility helicopters for the Indian Army and Air Force required the day before yesterday (!) though having cleared technical evaluation, is stuck at the staff evaluation stage for months, the clearance of which, keeps getting delayed, Aerospace Diary learns. 64 are for the IAF, and 133 are for the Army. The next stage will be for it to go through the technical oversight committee to ensure nothing is missed out to be followed by other clearances till the commercial bids are even opened. All this time wasted has many in the business speculating whether the government really wants to make a decision between the two contenders- Eurocopter’s AS550 C3 Fennec and the Kamov Ka-226- at all. With HAL developing the Light Utility Helicopter based on the single engined-ALH, and around 187 more light utility helico...