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The RFP cancellation is but a reflection of the times. Winds of change are blowing from the Potomac fanning the Rashpati Bhavan cold. The Indian Defense industry is in a quagmire, hurt by aging fleets, unreliable defense partners, corruption, fickle friends, horrible suppliers,  bad equipment, failed indigenous programs and now to top it all– a financial crisis.

The CAG report has also criticized the induction into the Army Aviation Corps of 40 advanced light helicopters — designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — at a cost of $360 million. It says they are underpowered, limiting their range to 5,000 instead of the required 6,500 miles, which will delay the phasing out of the AAC’s obsolete Chetak (SA 316B Alouette III) and Cheetah (SA 315B Lama) helicopters, reducing the army’s operational efficiency in the mountainous Kashmir region. Janes Weekly. UPI

According to press reports, the official reason for the cancellation of the tender bid is the fact that neither Bell Helicopters nor Boeing wanted to participate in the bid. For the 2nd time the unofficial reason for canceling the bid could be corruption. However for those who know the Indian procurement system totally understand the fact that all foreign bid programs are prone to corrupt practices–top to bottom. Therefore canceling a foreign bid, ostensibly for corruption is laughable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwbSw7jWfi4&feature=player_embedded

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwbSw7jWfi4&feature=player_embedded]

Most Indian Defense Analysts believe that the Request for Proposal (RFP) was based upon a specific Apache American chopper capable of firing the Hellfire Missiles. When Bell and Boeing decided not to bid on the project, the RFP had become a paper exercise. Most international Defense Analysts believe there is something deeper to the cancellation. The Bharati Defense industry is not at all happy with the performance of Eurocopter which was ostensibly the star that would have won the RFP. Indian dismay at Eurostar’s products stems from the failed Dhruv chopper and goes beyond Indian discomfort with the level of cooperation offered by Eurocopter to make Dhruv indigenous. There is dismay in Delhi because of the lack of cooperation between Eurocopter and HAL on the “Shakti” engine. If Eurocopter won this RFP then the $5 Billion Dhruv program becomes redundant.

As it is often the case with the ups and downs of Indian defence procurement, the MoD’s announcement has left observers and analysts completely mystified and unable to formulate a logical explanation.

For the Indian MoD to maintain that the three combat helicopters in the final shortlist do not meet their qualitative requirements would effectively imply that these requirements were either unrealistic, or rather tailored for a specific model that however did not made it to the shortlist. Indeed, the only in-service helicopter-launched missile in the world that would offer a range of at least 7km with a fire-and-forget mode is the AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire that equips the AH-64D Longbow Apache.

Thus, an educated guess would be that the Indian military was not very happy with the AH-64D having fallen out of the competition. The move to cancel the ongoing process and announce a renewed procurement effort in the near future is clearly intended to offer Boeing a second chance, and the outcome of any new “competition” is already clear. DefPro.India cancels $550 million attack helicopter tender

HAL’s Dhruv (Advanced Light Helicopter) has been unable to take off. HALs attempts to produce choppers have been a colossal failures and HAL cannot meet the defense needs of any country. Ecuador is having second thoughts about the purchase. India’s indigenous helicopter program, if it ever takes off has been unable to meet the needs of the India. HAL even tried tried to assemble Russian choppers under Indian names. The Indian Airforce and Navy is raving mad.

Eurocopter has previously worked with HAL on a major helicopter programme. The Indian company licence-produced several hundred Aerospatiale SA315B Lamas and SA316B Alouettes as the Cheetah and Chetak, with these to be replaced by the new aircraft. Flight Global

The Chetak, Cheetah and Lancer were of course French Choppers with Indian names.

India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) is planning a major boost for the domestic military aviation sector by investing INR220 billion (USD5 billion) in the design and development of rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft over the next five years.

The programme, which is especially intended to promote the indigenous development of helicopters, will also increase the sector’s workforce from 30,000 to around 46,000 by 2012, a senior military officer told Jane’s on 20 June. Jane’s Defense Weekly

How Abdul Kalam Stole US secrets for Delhi’s rockets

Delhi’s Tejas

World Record: 500th Flying coffin crashes
Russian FGFA: Tricolor paint
Junk jets for Japan
More Flying coffins?
$10 billion for which plane
F-16s or F-35s
Lockheed’s bait and switch
Moscow sale to Delhi: Russian Mig 35s are simply Mig 29s with new decals
Delhi’s missiles
Brahmos: Faster than the speeding bullet
Abject failure in indigenous arms production forced Delhi to buy weapons without Transfer of Technology
After Moscow’s grounding, when will Delhi ground the New Flying Coffins?

(The above articles can be found http://www.rupeenews.com)

Stung by a strong of failures, Delhi had planned on injecting another Five Billion Dollars into the program. Janes Defense Weekly reports that Even the Indian Navy doesn’t want anything to do with HALs choppers.

The Indian Navy has virtually written off the naval variant of the advanced light helicopter (ALH), Dhruv, saying it has failed to meet basic operational requirements. The navy, which operates a fleet of six ALHs, has decided against placing further orders with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

A senior navy official told HT, “The ALH has a long way to go before the programme matures sufficiently for it to undertake basic naval roles such as search and rescue (SAR) and communication duties.” He said the helicopter’s ASW (anti-submarine warfare) version developed by HAL still falls short of naval expectations.

Navy officials said that the ALH lacks the desired endurance for mission requirements. The navy is also not satisfied with the chopper’s rotor blade folding mechanism for storage on warships and its payload capacity. The navy has launched a global hunt for new ASW helicopters to replace its ageing fleet of Sea King helicopters.

However, HAL remains buoyant about domestic helicopter sale prospects with the defence ministry entrusting it with the task of developing light utility helicopters for the army and the air force. The ministry has allocated Rs 435 crore for this. The defence public sector undertaking is focusing aggressively on the helicopter business and plans to set up a new helicopter division in Bangalore. Hindustan Times

Even though the Indian Department of Defense denies the fact that the Indian Navy will not purchase the choppers, the fact remains that the Indian Navy is looking elsewhere for its needs

Lingering doubts over the reliability of the Hindustan Aeronautics Dhruv advanced light helicopter have led to the Indian navy opening a requirement for utility helicopters to other manufacturers.

The navy now has six Dhruvs in its fleet, but these have been plagued by maintenance and servicing woes, say industry sources. As a result, the service has issued a request for information to companies including Bell, Boeing, Eurocopter and HAL for helicopters that can perform anti-submarine warfare and communications roles.

The requirement, which is believed to be initially for around 60 aircraft, will replace Westland Sea Kings, HAL-built Chetaks and potentially some planned Dhruv orders. The new aircraft will become the service’s main rotary asset and be based on its Godavari-class frigates.

Technical details have not been released, with the navy still fine-tuning its requirements. These will become clearer when a request for proposals is issued, with the defence ministry expecting this to take up to a year to prepare.

An order for a foreign helicopter would come as a major blow to HAL, which has been pushing for the increased acceptance and induction of the Dhruv throughout the Indian armed forces. There have been several issues with the design in the past, and the navy is now reportedly unhappy with the performance of its hingeless main rotor’s folding blades.

Rectifying the problems appears to be high on HAL’s priorities list, and the company has set up a dedicated maintenance, repair and overhaul facility that has helped lower the helicopter’s line replacement unit failure rate. It is also improving the Dhruv, including through the integration of Turbomeca TM333 turboshaft engines, high-performance composites, advanced blade profiles for reduced noise, high speed and more efficient lift, and pressurised refuelling for quick turnarounds. BY : Siva Govindasamy For Flight International

The LCH project, of course, has seen Israeli and French collaboration, with the former helping with avionics and the latter with engines and missiles.The ALH was only able to fly atop the wings of the Israeli Ariforce. Massive French and Israeli support has been unable to resuscitate the project. 1,000-horsepower Shakti engine is nothing but a French engine with an Indian name. The Israeli and the French stepped into the project, scrapped everything that had been done and simply put the HAL decal on the new chopper. Its still a dud!

India, which currently relies on an ageing fleet of Russian MI-25 and MI-35 helicopter gunships designed by Russia’s Mil, plans to overhaul and replace its fleet amid growing security risks in the region.

Last year, India sought bids for new attack helicopters designed to assault targets on the ground operating at high altitudes, from seven international firms.

While US companies Boeing and Bell, a unit of Textron, had quit the field, Europter, Westland and Mil remained in the race. India scraps $1-billion military helicopter tender news. 24 March 2009. Domain B

There are hopes that the Eurocopter and Israeli help may put new life into the helicopter.

“We hope to begin the initial work on the light utility helicopter next year. It would take around five years to completely design and develop a new helicopter, and an experienced Western partner would help in every stage,” says a HAL official.

That partner is likely to be Eurocopter, which will offer its AS550 Fennec for the 197-helicopter requirement and came close to winning an earlier tender cancelled last December after Bell Helicopter and several other bidders complained that the EADS subsidiary had been unfairly favoured in the selection process.

“During the earlier tender, HAL was in talks with Eurocopter as it was required to licence-produce 137 of the helicopters. That fell through after the tender was cancelled, but the negotiations with Eurocopter went very well and we liked what they offered us. Hopefully, that can continue if Eurocopter comes on board as a partner for the indigenous LUH programme,” says the company official.

Eurocopter has previously worked with HAL on a major helicopter programme. The Indian company licence-produced several hundred Aerospatiale SA315B Lamas and SA316B Alouettes as the Cheetah and Chetak, with these to be replaced by the new aircraft.

A possible model for the partnership is one that Eurocopter has with South Korea’s Korea Aerospace Industries. The company is a partner in the Korea Helicopter Programme, which aims to develop an 8t utility helicopter for the country’s army. Eurocopter would also help KAI to market the design outside South Korea. Hindustan Aeronautics likely to partner Eurocopter on indigenous light utility helicopter By Siva Govindasamy

It is pedagogical to underscore the fact that HAL is opening a separate division for the Europcpter part of the factory, which essentially means one facility for the French and one for the Israelis. Neither one is ready to give up the Coke formula. Why doesn’t Russia transfer plane technology to India?

India requires a smaller single-engine helicopter in the 2.5-3t category, with a range of up to 500km (270nm) and a 500kg (1,100lb) payload. HAL, which will also be responsible for the maintenance of the Western-manufactured helicopters, is likely to create a new division to oversee the entire LUH programme. This will be separate from its existing Dhruv advanced light helicopter and light combat helicopter programmes. Flight Global

Why the US gave up India as a strategic partner.

“You will see intense engagement of Pakistan to keep civilian rule intact, to keep the economy from tanking and to increase assistance for counterinsurgency, especially helicopters,” the review participant said. Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council. EXCLUSIVE: Money, choppers urged for Pakistan. Civilian efforts to aid strategy against Islamists by Barbara Slavin, Friday, March 20, 2009. The Washington Times.

India is hoping that by canceling the RFP it may be able to seduce Bell Helicopters to bid for the Indian requirement. This may or may not be wishful thinking, because the last time around Bell made an excuse of time to not bid on the project. This was a silly excuse from Bell. Missing the deadline for $1 Billion contract would have severe career dilapidating effects on the Bell team. No American corporation worth its name would miss a deadline like that–not in the least, one run by military personnel and ex-military officers. It is but obvious that Bell’s request for one additional month was a ploy–a polite way of bowing out of the project. Bell’s non participation may have been the result of the US governmental pressure or Israel lobbying. Some think that if India was denied the Bell choppers this would open the market for Israeli participation in the bid. Moscow sale to Delhi: Russian Mig 35s are simply Mig 29s with new decals

In May 2008, New Delhi has begun a competition to procure 22 attack helicopters for its air force. The aircraft are intended to replace the ageing Mil Mi-25 and Mi-35 fleets.
India requested a 2.5 tonne twin-engined copter with all-weather and terrain ability. The new copter should also be highly manoeuvrable and able to deploy 20mm turret guns, rockets, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles. The new attack helicopter should also be able to employ air-to-ground, fire-and-forget missiles with a range of at least seven kilometers. Beyond that it should be equipped with anti-armour capabilities and be capable of operating at high altitudes such as in the Kashmir’s mountain borders with Pakistan with day-and-night operations capabilities.

With a unit price of $25 million (including armament and equipment), the first two helicopters were intended to be delivered within two years after contract signing with the final copter delivered within 36 months.

Initially seven companies participated the tender with their products: AgustaWestland’s AW129, Bell’s AH-1Z SuperCobra, Boeing’s AH-64D Apache Longbow, Eurocopter’s Tiger HAD, Kamov’s Ka-50, Mil’s Mi-28 NE and the national Hindustan Aeronautics’s Light Combat Helicopter. However, at the final stage only three companies (AgustaWestland, Eurocopter and Mil) left over while the US companies as quit the race.

Bell, a unit of Textron withdrew its participation since the AH-1Z Cobra is not in production anymore and thus only available through government-to-government Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deals based on the conversion of existing airframes.

Boeing decided to refuse to submit a proposal for the Apache since their request for an eight-week extension to the last August deadline has not been heeded. The extension was needed to submit a proposal which meets all the requirements of the Indian Air Force (IAF).DefPro.India cancels $550 million attack helicopter tender

The bid may also have been scrapped because of the severe budgetary issues faced by Delhi. International Relations may also be a major factor in the decision. India’s worst nightmares come true: Long term strategic malaise

NEW DELHI, March 24: India said on Tuesday it had scrapped a tender for 22 attack helicopters as three international firms vying for the multi-million-dollar deal had been unable to meet the military’s requirements.

“The request for the proposal (RFP) was cancelled last week after the three companies could not meet the qualitative requirements,” Indian defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said.
“A fresh RFP will be floated shortly,” Kar added, without specifying when the global tender would be issued.

A ministry source said the attack helicopter tender, floated last year, was worth nearly $550 million.
The three companies which were in the race for the contract were Russia’s Kamov, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) company and Italian-British group Agusta Westland, spokesman Kar said.

The source added EADS, which owns the world’s largest helicopter-maker Eurocopter, was ready to bid again for the 22 high-altitude machines India needs for its troops patroll-
ing Kashmir’s mountain borders with Pakistan.

India has emerged as the biggest buyer of military products with plans to spend up to $30 billion on defence purchases by 2012.

The ministry source said five companies were initially in the race for the attack helicopter deal.
“Two bowed out before the RFP was floated last year,” the source said.
US media reports had named the two companies which quit the race as US-based Boeing and Bell, a unit of Textron.

EADS, meanwhile, has also expressed interest in collaborating with India in producing a trainer version of an indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA) which now is under field trials.
“EADS has shown interest in the LCA trainer,” India’s chief military scientist M. Natarajan told reporters separately on Tuesday.

India scrapped a $600-million deal in 2007 for 197 helicopters awarded to Eurocopter after allegations of corruption in the bidding process. Media reports said that the deal was scrapped because of the involvement of brokers. Dawn. India scraps attack helicopter tender, Wednesday, 25 Mar, 2009 | 06:51 AM PST

Why the US gave up India as a strategic partner? Delhi is hoping that the largesse of he American Government has outlasted the Bush regime. Delhi hopes that by floating a new contract it will bring Bell back into the fold. There are clear signals from Obama’s Washington that the US is concerned about Nuclear proliferation in Delhi. In simple terms, this means enforcing the Hyde Amendment on the Indian Nuclear deal. That was the fine print that Delhi may have missed during the euphoria. Ravi Vohra, director of the New Delhi-based National Maritime Foundation has voiced serious concerns about he Indo-US Nuclear deal and its intrusive provisions. There are ominous signs elsewhere also. The US has tripled aid to Bharat’s arch-enemy Pakistan and is forging closer links with the military. General Mullen wants to work closely with the Pakistanis and many in the Obama Administration realize that the terror in India is partly because of the occupation of Kashmir. The strategic changes in American thinking brought about by a deep depression and the growing importance of China are flowing down to many areas. Transfer of Technology is one of them.

The news that the US has stalled the supply of two gas turbines by General Electric Corp (GE) for India’s new stealth warship ‘Shivalik’ should not really come as a big surprise, as America has a history of imposing last-minute sanctions on defence deals. The reason cited in this instance is that America is ”reviewing its defence relationship” with several countries including India.

The so-called International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) managed by the US state department is proving to be an albatross around the neck of these enterprises.

The highly controversial ITAR was originally conceived as an instrument to prevent the proliferation of weapons by curbing the export of sensitive components of space technology, which by its very nature is a dual use system.

The technological subsystems developed for a launch vehicle meant to put a civilian satellite into orbit can with some modification be adopted for a long range missile capable of carrying a destructive warhead. Similarly, a satellite featuring an earth imaging system designed to monitor natural resources can also be deployed for surveillance and reconnaissance. US export curbs driving away business news, 06 March 2009. Domain B

The Bush Administration has wanted to build India as a counterweight to China. That thinking went out the window when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton canceled Delhi on her itinerary and headed straight for Beijing asking the Beijing bankers to continue to purchase more T-Bills.

It would seem that the US wants to maintain its position as the unchallenged global defence leader by blocking the flow of technology to other countries…

India has already told the US, which aims to replace Russia as the world’s largest supplier of defence equipment, that the annual physical verification of the defence hardware, which has already been purchased at a great cost, should end.

For instance, as per the existing US defence trade regulations, three jets bought from Boeing to fly Indian leaders would be annually inspected by the American officials. New Delhi considers this a clear infringement of national sovereignty.

If Bell really did want more time to bid on the Indian project, it certainly did not make any moves internally to take action against its own employees for missing the deadline. It is safe to assume that Bell did not bid on the Indian Chopper deal deliberately and with the acquiescence and involvement of the US Government. American Aircraft manufactures never miss deadlines. Then again some analysts believe that the reason for the non-participation of Bell in the bid may be due to the lack of Bell’s production capacity. With two wars going on and a commitment by the White to transfer more than a 100 choppers to Pakistan, Bell may not have had the bandwidth to deliver to Delhi. Another aspect of international dimensions that may factor into the equation is the impending decision on the $10 Bilion Bid floated by Delhi for the acquisition of 126 aircraft. Lockheed’s bait and switch. Lockheed has dangled the F-16s in front of Delhi and is at the same time admitted that it will halt F-16 production soon. Where does that leave Delhi–surely between a rock and a hard place.lF-16s or F-35s

The problems with Bharati Defense production are a bit deeper than the cancellation of the Attack Helicopter proposal bid.

“On the face of it, a hike of Rs 25,000 crore or thereabouts in defence allocations looks impressive,” notes defence analyst Commodore (Retd.) C. Uday Bhaskar, but adds that “the actual impact is felt when defence outlay is translated into capacity-building. Almost every year, for the past eight years you have returned unspent money on the capital head. For a country where military obsolescence is staring us in the face, this reeks of a systemic ineptitude because of Bofors, HDW and the Kargil coffin scams. To therefore, say that I have increased defence allocations and another Mumbai will not happen is like cheating.”

Rightly so, this is not going to benefit our industry in any significant way. As it is, the major beneficiaries of the largesse will be the MNCs/TNCs of the West, and their keen interest in India as was evident in their large-scale participation at the just-concluded Aero India 09 at Bangalore.

The sustained preference for overseas suppliers (till recently mainly Russian) over the decades raises doubts about the seriousness of successive governments and the Armed forces in achieving self-reliance in Defence technology. Even the Interim Budget has dealt a blow to the effort by cutting to Rs 4,000 crore of the allocation for Research and Development against the Rs 6,486 crore spent in 2008-09. India gets its defence supplies by way of 15 per cent each from PSUs and indigenous industry and remaining 70 are imported.

India requires helicopters, fighter jets, artillery guns and missiles urgently, as also submarines and these purchases are expected to push Defence spending to at least $30 billion by 2012. The weapons and systems will continue to be largely imported even though Defence Minister A. K. Antony has regretted that import of 70 per cent of our Defence needs is simply unacceptable. The question is: what then is being done about it? Other than HAL’s Advanced Light Helicopter and the DRDO’s Agni and Prithvi missiles, it is difficult to list major success stories of the Defence PSUs. Even these have been 20-30 years delayed.  Central Chronicle. Dr PK Vasudeva, INFA

The Indian wish for indigenous arms production faces huge impediments in Delhi. There are inbuilt advantages for Indian politicians to purchase arms from overseas. The RFP for the Choppers is another victim to corruption. The list is long– Bofors, HDW and the Kargil coffin scams are all part of the same process. Bharati politicians have a penchant for foreign military imports because they come with huge kickbacks. This is the bottom line. Local production has been has inherent disincentives because local production has been handed to huge monolithic monopolies like HAL and Tata which control the means of production as well as the services. Tata’s record in automobile or truck production has been less than stellar. HAL’s record has been pathetic.

Other countries in the region had less of an infrastructure than Bharat and have achieved a lot more in indigenous arms production.India intoxicated by meager success is blind to real self-portrait of caste infested penury and balkanization

Pakistan’s “214 Subs” made in Karachi 5th Generation Su-35 spinoffs made in China as J-11s
Pakistan rapidly moving beyond basic JF-17 Thunders. The J-10s J-11s and newer versions of JF-17
The Pakistani hawks in the sky: Y-89 AWACS
Nothing succeeds like success: Hataf, Ghauri, Babar, Abdali missiles

JF-17 Thunders: Designed, built and operationalized in a record time of 4 years. Custom built for Pakistani needs
Serial production of JF-17 Thunder expedited:30-50 per year to 100 per annum
Beyond the Pakistani made JF-17 Thunder Fighter Plane, Chinese made J-10s.PAF next acquisition the J-11s?
Pakistan defense based on missile nuclear deterrent Hataf, Shaheen Babar and Abdali Hamza: Pakistan’s Augusta class Subs made in Karachi Pakistan’s 500 Al-Khalid tanks have been in production since 2001. Next generation tanks exported via IDEAS Pakistani made UAVs: Uqaab & Jasoos
3 New shipyards support Pakistani ship building & Frigates
Pakistan’s F-22 Frigates made in Karachi Chinese SAMs S-300s for Pakistan When with Iranian S-300s be operational? Why did Pakistan buy fewer F-16s?
PAF: Nuclear armed deterrent to hegemony
Pakistan already has a Nuclear Deal with China! India tried to raise expectations to portend failure!
IAF vs PAF: Defined by IAF
Tanks: Bharati Arjun vs. Pakistani Al Khalid
Russian 5th generation Su 35s spinoff of Su 27 Made in China as J-11
China achieves techonological independence in arms production
Russian Arms–Made in China
With $30 Billion China building Jxx 5th Generation Fighter
Beyond Pakistani made JF-17 Thunders & Chinese made J-10s: When will the PAF acquire and manufacture the J-11s (as the JF-18)?
Indian missile failures
Why doesn’t Russia transfer plane technology to India?
When will Delhi ground the New Flying Coffins?
Indo Russian bickering disputes delay FGFA to stretch target in 2017 How Andul Kalam stole US NASA secrets for India