India releases tenders for attack, heavy-lift helicopters

New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) In a bid to boost the combat
capabilities of its armed forces, India has released two
global tenders for the procurement of 22 attack and 15
heavy-lift helicopters for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

"The Request for Proposals (RFP) for 15 heavy-lift
helicopters is being issued today and the RFP for 22 combat
helicopters was released yesterday," IAF Chief Air Chief
Marshal Fali Homi Major told a press conference here.

The choppers participating in the combat attack contract
include Bell's AH-1 Super Cobra, Boeing's AH-64 Apache,
Eurocopter's Tiger, Russian Mil for Mi-35 and Agusta
Westland's Mangusta.

The RFP for 22 combat attack helicopters comes out within
two months after the previous tender, released before the
Berlin Air Show in May 2008, was cancelled in March this year.

The earlier tender was cancelled after the American
vendors opted out of the race, citing the 50 per cent offsets
clause in the contract.

US' Bell helicopters had moved out as their Super Cobra
chopper was not available for the Direct Commercial Sales
route. This time the RFP has allowed for the contenders to
offer their machines through the Foreign Military Sales route.

Meanwhile, for the heavy-lift chopper contract, the
contenders include Russian Mi-26, Boeing's Chinook CH-47 and
Sikorsky's CH-53.

These heavy-lift choppers would be used by the IAF to
augment its fleet of Mi-26 helicopters, six of which were
procured in the 80s.

"These 15 heavy-lift helicopters will be used for
transporting men and material in the high altitude regions,
which can be accessed only by helicopters," senior IAF
officials said here.

Commenting on the procurement of six additional mid-air
refueling aircraft for the IAF, Major said, "There were two
competitors and we have finished the flight evaluation. The
MRTT (Airbus Multirole Tanker and Transport aircraft) scores
above but it has still not been decided because till the time
the decision is taken by the Government, we will not know
whether it is going to be the Airbus or the other competitor."

Russia's Ilyushin and European Airbus were the two
competitors in the contract.

Russia had offered its IL-78 tankers, six of which are
already flying with IAF whereas Airbus had offered A-330 MRTT.
PTI AJD