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| Army to invite international tenders for howitzers2005-10-03 The army today said international re-tendering would be resorted to for acquisition of upgraded wheeled and tracked 155mm high calibre howitzers in the aftermath of the CBI probe orderded against South African armament giant, Denel, for alleged payoffs in another deal.Admitting that the Denel episode had hit the army's effort to "upgun its artillery firepower", the new Vice-Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. S Pattabhiraman, said along with floating of fresh tenders, retrials would also be held for the bidding armament majors. Asked if the South African company would be barred from taking part in fresh trials, he said it was for the Government to take a decision on that. The Defence Ministry has currently put on hold all deals with the company. Under the artillery perspective modernisation plan, which is running heavily behind schedule, Army was to acquire 120 tracked and 180 wheeled 155mm guns of higher calibre by 2010. For the tracked 155MM guns, Denel had been the single vendor, while in the case of wheeled version, four shortlisted vendors were Denel, Soltam of Israel, Sweden SWS Defence and Slovak's Kerametal. The technical Committee had picked up Denel again only after premlinary trials under the previous NDA regime. Asserting that it would be the army's top priority to make upgraded 155mm guns as artillery standard weapon, the new Vice-Chief said that no fresh trials would be held for upgraded towed 155mm guns which can fire longer range new generation ammunition up to 65 kms. Sponsored Links
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