India moves on howitzer purchase

Gestart door jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter), 09/03/2012 | 08:32 uur

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

India ready for U.S. howitzer purchase

Thursday, May 17, 2012 6:30 AM

NEW DELHI, May 17 (UPI) -- India's Defense Acquisition Council gave the go-ahead to buy 145 howitzers nearly 25 years after a procurement scandal derailed the purchase.

The deal will "exorcise" the "Bofors ghost" by inducting the army's first modern 155mm howitzers since the scandal in the mid-1980s, a report by The Times of India said.

The council, led by Defense Minister A. K. Antony, cleared the purchase of 145 M-777 .39-caliber ultra-light howitzers from the United States in a direct government-to-government deal worth $647 million under the Foreign Military Sales program.

The final contract with BAE Systems, which now owns Bofors, will be signed as soon as the Ministry of Finance and then the Cabinet Committee on Security give their expected agreement, the Times said.

Senior politicians, including former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, were accused of receiving kickbacks from arms manufacturers in return for paying inflated prices for Bofors guns.

India's Central Bureau of Investigations continued to look into the Bofors affair despite no major successful prosecutions.

Rumors of scandal were partly responsible for the electoral defeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian National Congress Party in the November 1989 general elections.

In 2004, the Delhi High Court quashed charges of bribery against several people, including Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991.

The announcement of the U.S. Bofors purchase comes as the first user trials of an indigenously manufactured Bofors-type gun are to start, the Indian defense Web site DefenseNow said.

In early March, the Indian army announced an order for 100 .52-caliber howitzer artillery pieces to be made by the Ordnance Factory Board, in Kolkata, West Bengal state, a report by the online news site Indian Express said.

Trials of these OFB guns are to take place at the Pokhran range in Rajasthan state.

The state-run OFB is manufacturing the gun based on the Bofors design which was transferred in 1986 but which lay unused due to the Bofors scandal, DefenseNow said.

"While the OFB has not called its homegrown version of the artillery gun as a Bofors gun, it will be an upgraded version of the Bofors," DefenseNow said.

Defense procurement plans are expected to be speeded up after the defense budget, announced in March, took a 17 percent jump to around $40 billion for 2012-13, partly because of major acquisition plans.

Around 18 percent of the $40 billion will be for capital expenditure -- buying new equipment up to March 2013.

A major chunk of the military budget will be for purchase of the medium multi-role 126 Rafale fighter jets from French manufacturer Dassault, a deal worth between $10 billion-$20 billion over several years.

Dassault edged its main rival EADS with its Eurofighter Typhoon last month as preferred supplier and the final contract -- India's largest single defense deal -- is expected to be signed by the summer.

The tender, which was issued in August 2007, also was contested by Boeing with its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin's F-16, the Russian-made MiG-35 and the Gripen from Swedish firm Saab.

http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5847410/india-ready-for-u-s-howitzer-purchase

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

India moves on howitzer purchase

The Indian army has order 100 howitzer artillery guns to be made by the Ordnance Factory Board, based in Kolkata, West Bengal state.

Published: March. 8, 2012 at 6:30 AM

NEW DELHI, March 8 (UPI) -- The Indian army has ordered 100 howitzer artillery pieces to be made by the Ordnance Factory Board, in Kolkata, West Bengal state.

Indian Minister of State for Defense M.M. Pallam Raju confirmed the order is for the 155mm, .52-caliber model, a report by the online news site Indian Express said.

Raju also said that bids for artillery guns including towed, self-propelled and ultra-light howitzers will be open to all manufacturers, foreign and domestic under $4 billion artillery modernization program.

Up to 40 towed guns will be ordered as well as 180 self-propelled and145 ultra-light guns, the Indian Express report said.

OFB was set up by the government in 1979, incorporating more than three dozen private and public domestic ordnance sales and manufacturing companies.

OFB has been supplying the army with howitzer spares, including muzzles, loading troughs, recoil systems and breach mechanism. The company also makes Vidhwansak, AK-47 and INSAS rifles, sport guns, various types of military vehicles and other defense equipment such as parachutes and propellants.

The 100 howitzer deal is the first artillery gun contract for nearly 20 years, since the Bofors scandal. Senior politicians, including former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, were accused of receiving kickbacks from arms manufacturers in return for paying inflated prices for Bofors guns.

India's Central Bureau of Investigations continues to look into the Bofors affair despite no major successful prosecutions.

Rumors of scandal were partly responsible for the electoral defeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian National Congress Party in the November 1989 general elections.

In 2004, the Delhi High Court quashed charges of bribery against several people, including Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991.

Last week, Raju said the government is progressing with moves to sell some shares in the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the Press Trust of India reported.

"The will of the government is there for disinvestment," Raju said.

HAL is gearing up for the disinvestment process but the exact timing of the initial public offering of shares must be decided by Ministry of Defense and the Department of Disinvestment, a HAL official told PTI.

Raju's announcement of the howitzer deal comes as India's negotiations continue with French aircraft manufacturer Dassault for 126 Rafale jet fighters worth around $10 billion, a report by the Press Trust of India said.

"Decision is final as far as selection is concerned," said Raju.

Dassault was the low bidder, edging its main rival EADS with its Eurofighter Typhoon, a report in The Times of India said last month.

India's decision to opt for Dassault is a further blow to EADS. In late December EADS lost out to Lockheed Martin's fifth-generation fighter F-35 Lightning II.

Japan will buy 42 F-35 fighters over the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet in a deal estimated at around $7 billion.

Topics:Rajiv Gandhi, F-35 Lightning II
© 2012 United Press International, Inc.

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