New Delhi: Six-years after American defence firms forayed into the Indian arms market after the lifting of US ban, a company is set to bag the first commercial deal for selling 197 light helicopters to the Army.
After almost two-years of evaluation, including trials at the world's highest battlefield on the Siachen glacier, the army has, according to highly placed sources, opted for Bell Helicopter's 407 Shen model in preference to EADS' Eurocopter.
Though the army has given its technical evaluation to the defence ministry, the deal is yet to be cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherhee as well as the Cabinet Committee on Security.
Though the price negotiations are yet to be finalised, the deal, which includes the training of Indian pilots, is estimated to be worth over $400 million.
The deal envisages the initial delivery of 60 helicopters in a flyaway condition and co-production of 137 helicopters after 100 per cent technology transfer by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
And for the first time, the deal will include a 30 per cent offset to be negotiated according to the defence ministry's requirements.
Under the new arms procurement policy, the government has enforced 30 per cent offsets in all contracts worth over Rs 300 crore and made it mandatory for firms selling arms to India to sign an integrity pact.
After the lifting of sanctions, the US made military sales of the ANTPQ fire-finding radars and reached an agreement to sell the retired warship USS TRENTON. All these were government-to-government deals done through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme of the US.
Comments
0 comment