$9-bn combat aircraft deal on fast track

Posted on: Oct. 4th, 2006 || Source: financialexpress.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

$9-bn combat aircraft deal on fast track

KOLKATA, OCT 3: The defence ministry will shortly place an order to buy 126 multi-role combat aircraft and intends to complete the procurement by March 2007. This is in step with the new defence procurement procedure framed by the ministry.

Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee has said the procurement procedure is being put on a fast track as the new fighters, which will replace the ageing Russian MiG fleet, will be the main fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Defence purchases have always been marred with unusual delays in finalising things and very often when the purchase reaches the armed forces, it becomes obsolete as a new version is available in the market. Efforts are being made to shorten the timeframe of procurement, Mukherjee said on the sidelines of a seminar on defence-industry partnership organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Tuesday.

A defence procurement currently involves enunciation of qualitative requirement, followed by acceptance of necessity, identification of vendors, issuance of request, technical evaluation and final approval.

IAF has already issued a request for proposal and is considering the US’ Lockheed Martin F-16, Sweden’s Gripen, Russia’s MiG 29 and France’s Mirage-2005 for the $9-billion deal, IAF sources said.

The defence ministry has a procurement budget of Rs 89,000 crore for 2006-07, Mukherjee said. IAF has phased out the MiG-21, and T-77. The T-96 used for training will be used till 2012 and the upgraded MiG-21 will remain in service till 2022-25, an IAF official told FE. Mukherjee said an aircraft carrier currently being built in the Cochin shipyard will be commissioned in July 2007.
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