Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews May 13, 2013   The government must have its eyes at the back of its head if it cannot recognize that of the 7980 Tatra trucks (including those with DRDO and Brahmos), around 2800 are off the road! That’s a scary figure and I’d hate to be head of ops should there be a national emergency. While around 20-30% parts are available in India, in the absence of purchase of further parts, the number of trucks out of operation are increasing day by day!  It is increasingly clear that the logistics sector of the army is most crippled by the off road trucks. Despite the fact there has been no blacklisting of either BEML or Tatra, it is the fear of the unknown and lack of decision making that has resulted in no action being taken in acquiring Tatra parts. As is the mandate of procurement, repairs are carried out at various Army workshops, though the spares are acquired from BEML only by the Master General of   Ordinance Service ( MGO) Branch. And, yes,...

Neelam Mathews Feb 9, 2013   At an excellent session by G Chandramouli, Scientist G, Proj Dir, AKASH, DRDL , RDO, on Challenges in design, development, system integration, testing, evaluation and production of Surface to Air Tactical Missile system – Akash, at the International seminar in Bangalore held just before Aero India, a query on whether Tatra trucks were being used for launching missiles, was addressed. “We have identified other vehicles and not received the go ahead…The first batch of Tatra, we are integrating. We have no issue. BEML is assuring us we will get more…” Apparently, the scientists seem to understand that work related to security programs cannot afford to be delayed because of a lethargic decision making process. Wonder if we haven't heard ALL about how actually tough the customizing of a truck for a launcher can be?!

Neelam Mathews Oct 4, 2012   Two-thirds of the world’s biggest defense companies do not provide enough public evidence about how they fight corruption, according to a new study from Transparency International UK released today. This includes companies from all of the ten largest arms exporting nations like US, Russia, Germany, France, the UK and China—who between them are responsible for over 90 percent of the arms sales around the world, the  Defense Companies Anti-Corruption Index (CI)  shows. The rating is done on good, publicly available evidence of having at least basic ethics and anti-corruption compliance systems in place. HAL, BEML and BEL, were listed under the lower bands. Based on level of evidence for basic anti-corruption systems in place:Ten companies score in the top two bands. Fluor Corporation (only 3% defense) is the only company to score in Band A. In band B are Accenture, BAE Systems, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Meggitt, Northrop Grumman Co...

Neelam Mathews Sept 5, 2012 Frankly, the Tatra controversy that erupted without enough proof , has been a classic case of shooting one’s mouth off. “Tatra Trucks being utilized in the Indian Army conform to the requisite qualitative requirements. BEML has so far supplied around 6500 Tatra Trucks of various models amounting to 3660   crores (approximately) to Ministry of Defense and other Defense Public Sector Undertakings,” Minister Pallam Raju confirmed in parliament today. Even if the trucks did not conform to the requirements, can you blame the OEM or the government authorities who signed on the contract? To ground the company’s helicopters  that were being used for special services without proof and no association with the trucks, one feels, is unacceptable. A case of using ‘security concerns’ as a blanket cover, gone wrong?

Posted by Neeelam Mathews June 11,2012 The Government has put the CMD of BEML VRS Natarajan under suspension following a recommendation by the CBI that he should be kept away from the post to ensure fair investigation.    The charge of CMD has been given to P Dwarkanath, the senior most functional Director in BEML.   The CBI is currently investigating into various charges against Natarajan.

Neelam Mathews May 2, 2012 With the Tatra-BEML deal under the scanner, the time has come to ask some questions. Who gave Tatra the order and resold at a higher price? Will the government consider blacklisting BEML? If this were to happen, would other defense PSUs shudder? Ofcourse, what about the most obvious candidate- OFB in the case of six companies blacklisted in March? "We need to introspect a bit here and be clear on our policy objectives,"  an official told Aerospace Diary. "We cannot have one rule for government-associated companies and the other for the rest of the world." In March , the Ministry of Defense blacklisted six firms- Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd. (STK), Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI), Rheinmetall Air Defence (RAD), Zurich, Corporation Defence, Russia (CDR), TS Kisan., New Delhi and  RK Machine Tools Ltd., Ludhiana - from further business dealings with the Ordnance Factory Board, Department of Defense Production, MoD, for ten ...