Singapore firm may lose Army contract to US
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:07 am
From: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/singa ... s/563943/0
With defence giant Singapore Technologies (ST) still in trouble due to the ongoing CBI investigation into charges of bribing Indian officials , a mega Army contract valued at more than $1 billion seems to be heading the American way.
A top defence official has said the Defence Ministry is looking at other options, including a direct military purchase from the US, for the ultra light 155 mm howitzer contract in which ST was the only contender.
Making it clear that the procurement — the Army urgently requires 145 of the light mountain guns for deployment on the China and Pakistan borders — has gone into deep freeze, the official said trials for the gun would not be carried out as per the advice of the Law Ministry.
As reported earlier, the MoD had last month allowed trials in cases where tainted defence firms are contenders, as long as it was a multiple-vendor situation. This has again quashed ST’s hopes that its gun would be tested for the ultra light contest. The ST gun, which was under shipment for trials when the CBI arrested former OFB chairman Sudipta Ghosh, is currently lying idle in Pokharan.
Defence Ministry officials said given the urgent requirement of the Army and the legal deadlock over ST, a direct military purchase could be a viable option. “We are looking at other options. We are looking at the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) option which was cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC),” a top official said.
If the MoD decides to take the FMS route, the Indian Army will go in for the M 777 ultra light Howitzer that is being used by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The gun, which is owned by British firm BAR Systems, is the only other artillery system suited to the Indian Army.
While the BAE gun had been called to take part in the trial, the company did not participate in the contest, which many considered would be one-sided given the list of technical requirements drawn up by the Army.
However, insiders say another option, that of a direct military sale of the ST gun from Singapore, could be pursued by the Ministry. This direct government-to-government sale would also take care of legal problems being faced in negotiating directly with a tainted firm like ST.
