IAF lashes out at Indian Bureaucracy
IAF and Industry furious about bureacratic cancellation of refueller bid
After two years of trialling the Airbus A330, the industry was certain that Airbus deal was through when from an unexpected corner a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance cancelled the deal. This has angered the IAF, obviously Airbus and the defence industry both within India and overseas. At a CII-KPMG conference yesterday, Brig Hai commented (not related to this deal) that India should stop looking at defence acquisitions as a "procedure" and start looking at it as a matter of national importance. A few foreign vendors have said that
"We don't mind if we lose out to a better product from a competitor, but it is very frustrating when tenders are repeatedly cancelled for no fault of the vendors. It is also a very costly process."
Another source pointed out that the problem is that a bureaucrat sitting in a ministry has absolutely no incentive to pass a project. Whether a project passes or not, makes no difference to their career and if they are 2 years away from retirement then nobody can point fingers at them if they say reject a proposal. Another source said that
no major deal has been passed under the Congress. All deals major deal were made under the NDA government a decade ago, even the ones signed recently. The Congress has neither the vision nor the capability to strengthen the nation. 8ak has repeatedly pointed out that
Antony achieved nothing in his previous 3 year term as defence minister and only rose to action post-Mumbai-attack pressure and even then everything is on paper.
India’s cancellation of the contract for six A330 in-flight refuelers on Dec. 30 is worrying international companies, which complain that transparency is decidedly lacking in Indian defence procurement reports AFP.
The adverse step of cancelling the contract was taken after the finance minister raised reservations over the high price offered by EADS for its refuelers in comparison to Russia’s Ilyushin offer. Interestingly, in January 2009 the Russian bid was 1.05 billion Euros (without the extra five engines and maintenance). This price had inflated 384 percent since 2004, when India purchased six IL-78s. The EADS bid was for 1.71 billion Euros, and was under negotiation. This included the extra engines and 30 years of depot-level servicing.
The government had sent Request for Proposal (RFP) to arms majors like EADS, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Ilyushin for US$1.5 billion deal for years ago. However, only French EADS and Russian Ilyushin had responded to the query.
The government’s move has left the IAF fuming. A top IAF official told 8ak that the entire force was agitated due to government’s callous attitude on matters of defence procurement. Adding further, he said that cheap is not always the best option and the A-330s were certainly more modern and reliable than the IL-78s and that the
government should be considerate towards the demands of the IAF, as it was a responsible national force and will never ask the government to shell out money unnecessarily. The official suggested that the key to avoid such a situation was to put officials who have know-how of defence in charge of matters and not a random bureaucrat.
Meanwhile, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshall PV Naik has publicly said that the move will delay the plans of IAF to induct the much-needed refuellers as the entire process will have to be repeated once again.
"I am not talking about strategic reach, but we need more refuellers, which will be delayed now. We will have to restart the action now," Naik told reporters when asked if the IAF's strategic reach might be adversely impacted by the withdrawal of the tenders.
The deal was crucial to IAF because the refuellers add to its capability of hitting targets deep inside enemy territory as it increases the endurance of its combat aircrafts. A330 is superior to the IL-78 in many ways. The Russian aircraft’s extra fuel tanks have to be fitted in the cargo hold, which results in lesser dispensation of fuel. The A330’s cruising speed at 860 km/h (464 knots) is higher than IL-78, which has a cruising speed of 850 km/h (460 knots) and it has commonality with civil aircraft that makes its maintenance less cumbersome. More importantly The A330 with a range of 14,800 kilometres (9,200 miles) can travel double the distance in comparison to IL-78, which has a range of 7,300 km (3,942 miles).
8ak - Indian Defence News
but more than will invite the adventurous journals to investigate the things happened. GoI is playing safe now. I think that the ministry had taken a lesson from the Mirage deal and it wont want to get the screw again on their back. 
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