Indian Navy to purchase 24 multi-role choppers to boost fire power
In a desperate bid to buy multi-role helicopters, the Indian Navy is moving a proposal worth over `12,000 crore to buy 24 of these choppers which would be deployed for anti-submarine warfare as well as operations by its Marine Commando (MARCOS) special forces.
“We have moved a proposal worth `12,000 crore to buy 24 multi-role helicopters through a tender under the buy global category of the defence procurement procedure for our warships and sea-based operations,” a source in the Navy told MAIL TODAY. The proposal is expected to come up for discussion during an important meeting of the defence ministry scheduled to be held next week under defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the source said.
The move has come at a time when the defence ministry was forced to retract a more-thannine-year tender to purchase choppers from American firm Sikorsky Corporation due to very high price and the refusal of the firm to extend its contractual validity in view of the long acquisition process.
In the previous tender, the navy had wanted to buy 16 choppers but now it wants to go for 24 choppers in view of the increased responsibilities in its area of operations. Some navy officers claimed that the force was in a bad condition as its old Seaking multi-role choppers were getting older and its warships were operating without multirole choppers.
The navy also has plans of issuing an international tender for purchasing 123 Naval Multirole Helicopters (NMRH) which would allow it to deploy one chopper each on all of its warships. Navy officers claimed that recently when the MARCOS were operating in the Gulf of Aden in thwarting a piracy bid, they felt restricted while taking action against a group of pirates who ran away from the site.
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