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Attack chopper RFP cancellation to affect op preparedness: IAFNew Delhi, Apr 01, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- With the government cancelling the tenders for procuring 22 attack helicopters, the Indian Air Force (IAF) today said it would delay acquisition of the platform, affecting it operational preparedness. "It (RFP cancellation) will delay the acquisition. Any such delay affects our operational preparedness. But I suppose we got to live with this," IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major said here. Tenders for purchase of 2.5-tonne, twin-engine attack helicopters issued in May 2008 was cancelled last week, as the Defence Ministry had received responses only from three of the six global chopper manufacturers which had been approached for the platforms and the offers had not met the requirements of the IAF. The RFP was sent originally to Anglo-Italian AgustaWestland, US's Boeing and Bell, French Eurocopter, Russian Kamov and Mil. "It has been cancelled because some companies could not meet our requirements and others could not respond," Major said on the sidelines of the inaugural flight of the IAF's Boeing Business Jets here. Fresh tenders for the helicopters would be issued soon, he added, but did not specify a time frame for the RFP. With this move of the government, the IAF's plans to operationalise the 22 attack helicopters beginning 2010 would be hit considerably and could be delayed beyond 2012, IAF sources had said earlier. Asked if the IAF was looking at a new Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) to hone the skills of rookie fighter pilots in place of the newly inducted British 'Hawks', Major said the Air Force had not stated it was "not continuing" with the BAE System's AJTs. "We have not said we are not continuing with the same type. Have we? It is just that the press has said. We have said nothing on the issue," he said. The IAF chief said that the Defence Ministry had only issued a Request for Information for an AJT and that it did not mean that the Air Force would place no more orders to augment the 66 Hawks it had purchased from BAE Systems in 2004. The Hawks deal had an in-built provision for 33 more aircraft, apart from the 66 that was ordered originally. "It is only a Request for Information (RFI), that's all. So, it doesn't mean anything. So please don't come to conclusions, because you can ask for RFI for anything that you want. It is a daily process with us. So it is not an RFP, as somebody had reported, it is RFI. Actually, it has no significance," Major said. On the problems with the MiG-29 air-superiority fighter jets, the IAF chief said Russia had an air crash recently with one of their aircraft due to a problem in the tail fin. Major said the IAF to faced a problem with its fleet of MiG-29s several years ago, but the Air Force had overcome it with due modernisation, though one odd aircraft may still need modifications. The IAF had purchased 66 MiG-29s for three of its fighter squadrons in the late 1980s and the aircraft were upgraded in the beginning of this decade. "Many years back, we had a similar problem, but we have got ways and means of rectifying it. We have modernisation kits. We have checked out our aircraft. One odd may require a slight modification. Otherwise we have no issue with them. We are well aware of it and we have the necessary fix for this," Major said. To a query on the violence in Pakistan, the IAF chief said: "We are always prepared. Our levels of preparedness...We raise them, maintain them as and how the situation develops. We are always alert. We are always ready." |