Part II of this analysis examines how the defence ministry’s Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) interpreted an inflated cost analysis of the Eurofighter bid and undervalued the cost of the Rafale bid, five times.
Part I of this three-part analysis is a contextual reading of the February 2019 CAG report and outlines how the IAF’s MMRCA contest was fixed to get the Rafale back into the contest after it was rejected, three times, and how the threats to a Rafale win were removed.
The airshow has 403 exhibitors participating in this edition of which 165 are international exhibitors. 63 aircraft will be present at the show, either on static display or for flight demonstrations.
Salil Gupte was vice president of Boeing Capital Corporation and succeeds Pratyush Kumar as President of Boeing India. Kumar left the position in November 2018 to go as vice president and program manager of Boeing’s F-15 fighter aircraft program.
Wing Commander Sahil Gandhi, who had been with SKAT since the team was re-formed in 2016 with the induction of the Hawk aircraft, went down in his aircraft after it collided with another SKAT Hawk aircraft.
While earlier the period allowed to vendors for delivery began from the date of contract, it will now begin from the date of advance payment. The delivery schedule and invocation of any late delivery penalty clause will be governed by the date of advance payment.
Membership includes ‘Immediate assignment of the necessary nation codes to start using or to develop a national codification system’, ‘Access to some 18 Million NATO Stock Numbers and related information’ and ‘Two-way data exchange with NATO and sponsored nations’.
Earlier this month, Boeing held the transfer ceremony at its Philadelphia facility where the newly-arrived Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Harsh Shringla accepted the aircraft, which is part of a USD 3 billion order that also includes 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters.
This dismissal by the court also has several errors and in one instance, restricts the exercise of its own jurisdiction, which is likely to have implications for future cases that could pertain to defence or national security.
One representative of an MMRCA 2.0 competitor said, “The process is so elaborate, difficult and expensive. If you’re permitting cheating, at least have the decency to not make the rest of us work so hard.” “Just the thought of it being tailored to one of the contestant would discredit the whole idea of a competitive bidding process,” said another.
The most substantial challenge in the formulation of the RFP for 110 fighter aircraft is the incorporation of the industrial cooperation program under Chapter 07 of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), something that has never actually been implemented in any form before.
Even after two decades since the acquisition case, the Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) search has seen a system absent from trials and failing trials, being passed as technically compliant and ending up as, apparently, the cheapest. Also problematic is the difficulty its purchase could pose by provoking U.S. sanctions under their CAATSA.
The agreement opens the door to making standard communications systems onboard U.S. platforms available for acquisition by the Indian armed forces by mandating the security of these systems by both countries.
The joint statement said, “The Ministers committed to start exchanges between the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and the Indian Navy.” NAVCENT is part of CENTCOM and, both, the NAVCENT and the U.S. Fifth Fleet are headquartered in Manama, Bahrain with a common commander.
The proposed transfer of F-16 wing production from Israel to India is not contingent on an order from the Indian Air Force (IAF) according to Lockheed Martin.
