French Rafale wins MMRCA deal

Indian Ministry of Defense announced Rafale as a  winner of Indias biggest ever contract for providing 126 multirole conbat aircraft. 

The French firm was declared as the lowest bidder, according to which it will get the contract under India's defence procurement procedure, sources said. 

"The French firm Dassault Rafale has emerged as the L-1 (lowest bidder) and cheaper than its european rival EADS (maker of Eurofighter) in the tender and will be offered to supply the aircraft to the IAF," the source said.

They said the representatives of Dassault here were informed about the development in the morning and further negotiations on price will be held with them in the next 10-15 days.

The contract will be signed only in the next fiscal. According to the Request for Proposal (RFP), the winner of the contract will have to supply 18 of the 126 aircraft to the IAF in 36 months from its facilities and the remaining would be produced at HAL facilities in Bangalore.

Six companies including American F-16 and F-18, Russian MiG 35, Swedish Saab Gripen alongwith Eurofighter and Dassault Rafale were in the race in the beginning. 

Will keep you all updated on the same.  

Bangla-China Ties not to affect bond with India

 Source : Indian Defence News

 

Chief of Army Staff General Mohammed Abdul Mubeen has said that China is just helping Bangladesh in infrastructure development and that Dhaka's ties with Beijing will not affect friendly relation between Bangladesh and India.

He said on Tuesday that Bangladesh and China did not have a strategic relation and the relation between the two had nothing to do with Dhaka's ties with New Delhi.

The Chief of Army Staff was talking to media persons after reviewing the Passing out Parade of India's premier National Defence Academy near Pune in the country's western state of Maharashtra.

Gen Mubeen is currently on a five-day tour to India on an invitation from the chief of the Indian Army Gen V K Singh.

He was the third foreigner to take the salute of the newly passed out cadets of the prestigious institution after late Chinese premier Chou En-Lai and former chief of the then Royal Nepal Army Gen P J Thapa.

During the visit, Gen Mubeen is scheduled to interact with Indian defence minister A K Antony, national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon and top officials of the Indian Army and the Ministry of Defence.

He will also visit Paratroopers' Training School at Agra in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He is also likely to visit Indian Army's Eastern Command at Fort Williams in Kolkata.

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Defence Shipyards Lose Out to Private Players

Source : Indian Defence News 

India's defence public sector shipyards have lost to private players for construction of a number of naval vessels in recent times, Defence Minister A.K. Antony informed the Lok Sabha.

In written reply to questions, Antony said the defence shipyards have cited higher wages for its workers and time overruns for procurement of material for ship construction have pushed the cost of its shipbuilding.

The contracts for which the private shipyards have scored over the defence shipyards included naval offshore patrol vessels, barges, hovercraft, fast patrol vessels, interceptor boars, cadet training ships and fast interceptor craft.

"Defence shipyards lost to private yards (for these vessels)," Antony said.

"The defence shipyard have indicated that major reasons of losing out are ... higher wage rates for the labour and thereby increase in overheads, and longer time taken to procure the materials by observing the laid down procedures thus pushing up their prices," he added.