According to India’s defence ministry, an order worth INR 5,100 crore (around USD 670 million) has been placed for 6,01,427 AK203 rifles to be manufactured at Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. The 7.62 X 39mm calibre AK203 rifle will replace the INSAS rifle that has been in service for three decades.
An estimated 80,000 employees have been transferred to the new companies and E.R. Sheikh has been appointed the first Director General of the Ordnance Directorate (Co-ordination and Services), the successor organisation of Ordnance Factory Board.
General Rawat’s comments were critical of OFB’s products and were made with reference to a recent controversy over changes in rules for the supply of uniforms to troops.
Our columnist Mark narrates what transpired at Make In India Week and explains why Make In India cannot work in the defence sector under the existing dispensation.
StratPost goes through the revisions in the Defense Procurement Procedure announced by the defense ministry and tells you exactly what’s changed from DPP 2013.
Take a good, hard look at the 155 mm towed howitzer built by India’s Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) on the basis of designs transferred by Bofors in the 1980s.
The failure to consider the order by the DAC has wider implications as it is unlikely that any decision can be taken on this order by October 15, after which the value of the deal will see a 37 percent hike.
In purely dollar terms, the new price represents a 37 percent hike in the cost of the offer to India, but would effectively be even higher given the fall in the value of the rupee against the dollar since 2010.
The Delhi High Court has dismissed the challenge filed by Israel Military Industries (IMI) to its blacklisting, saying there was no merit in its petition.
BAE Systems is to sell its stake in Defence Land Systems India (DLSI) to Mahindra Defence Systems less than three weeks after the two issued a statement announcing a strategic review of their joint venture.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the company said, “In all of its R&D and supply programs in India IMI has always acted legally, ethically, and in full compliance with its established corporate policy which mandates ethical business dealings.”
Dean McCumiskey, Managing Director and Chief Executive of BAE Systems’ India operations told StratPost his company would be open to discussing any question of technical assistance the OFB might require, in its attempt to execute the designs and technology documentation transferred to it as part of the old Bofors howitzer procurement.
“The hearing qua the issue of black-listing of the petitioner (Singapore Technologies Kinetics) was concluded on 18.05.2011. Despite this, we are still informed that the final order qua the issue of black-listing of the petitioner has still not been issued,” observed the Delhi High Court.
The Delhi High Court has placed a hold on the acquisition of artillery guns by the Indian Army without its clearance. In the course of hearings of writ petitions filed by arms company, Singapore Technologies Kinetics, a bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul and Justice Rajiv Shakdher passed an interim order on May 02, 2011, asking the Ministry of Defense to refrain from awarding the tender without ‘leave and liberty of the court’.
British arms major BAE Systems Thursday opted out of India’s tender for 1,580 towed artillery guns with the deadline for submitting the bids coming to an end, a company official said here.
