Twenty seven years after the Bofors gun controversy, the Defence Ministry on Saturday cleared the decks for acquiring 814 long-range mounted artillery guns in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ policy. The total deal is worth over Rs15,750 crore. While the Army will buy 100 guns off-the-shelf from vendor, the remaining guns will be manufactured within the country. The Government will shortly float a global tender for this project.
Since the Bofors scam surfaced in 1987, the Army has not acquired a single artillery gun.Besides taking this major decision, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired for the first time by the new Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, also gave the nod for a Rs7,160 crore Integrated Air Command and Control System. The system integrates air
sensors and radars to protect Indian airspace. The Command, at present, has five nodes and the DAC gave the nod for four more nodes to cover isolated islands thereby providing a security umbrella to the entire country.However, the DAC deferred a decision on a Tata-Airbus joint venture for manufacturing 60 light transport aircraft to replace similar number of ageing Avros.
The Tata joint venture (JV) has emerged as single vendor. As per Indian rules, the deal cannot be inked in such a situation. In matters pertaining to defence acquisitions, the DAC can opt for single vendor if it is satisfied that there is an urgent operational requirement.
Sources said the Minister has sought more time to study the case and the decision is likely to be taken either way in the next DAC meeting. Similarly, the DAC refrained from taking a call on the IAF requirement for 106 more Pilatus trainer aircraft. The project is worth over Rs7,000 crore. The IAF has already bought 75 Pilatus aircraft to train new fighter pilots and needs 106 more.
The Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl) lobbied for its indigenously produced HTT-40 trainer but did not find favour with the Defence Ministry, besides the IAF. Both are of the opinion that the HAl plane is more expensive than the Swiss-made Pilatus. Moreover, the HAl will not be able to stick to timelines for delivery schedule specified by the IAF, sources said.
As regards the artillery project, the mounted guns can be put on any platform, be it a truck or a trailer, for fighting in the plains. The Army had submitted a field artillery rationalisation programme in 1999 for upgradation and modernising this arm but is yet to buy a new gun.
Incidentally, the overall acquisition plan for artillery, including self-propelled, towed and howitzers besides mounted guns, is worth over Rs35,000 crore but is yet to take off despite the Government giving in principle approval for modernisation four years back.
Though the detailed plan for modernising the artillery was drawn up in 1999, the project never took off due to various reasons despite the Government floating global tenders at least five times in the last one decade. The reasons included single vendor situation and blacklisting of two of the competitors. Blacklisting means these companies cannot bid for any defence project for 10 years and these companies were banned four years back.
As per the ‘Make in India policy,’ the Indian manufacturer will have to tie up with the selected foreign vendor for building the gun in the country. Some Indian companies like Tata, Kalyani and larsen & Toubro besides public sector Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) have manufactured prototypes of 155mm 52 calibre guns and they are likely to take part in the bid, officials said after the DAC meeting.
Meanwhile, the two-hour long DAC also reviewed the ‘Make in India’ policy. Parrikar insisted that it should be investor friendly. He asked the policy planners to have more discussions to make the policy more attractive. He also stressed that procurements should be made quickly and in a transparent manner, officials said.
Moreover, he favoured that DAC should meet more often for taking decisions even if the agenda is not very big. His predecessor Arun Jaitley had said that the DAC should meet at least once a month to clear procurements. Parrikar wants DAC, the apex body for deciding on such issues, to meet more once a month even if only three or four projects have to be cleared. In the past, the DAC was held only if the agenda was heavy with several items on the list, sources said.
All guns blazing
Three big ticket projects under the ‘Make in India’ category already cleared by Modi Government