India Defence
Featured Reports

Army to invite international tenders for howitzers

2005-10-03 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

Reports

Authoritative, credible and fact-based reports on defense and aerospace affairs

Daily Alerts

Latest defense and aerospace alerts from India and other major regions delivered daily to your inbox

Focus

In-depth coverage with filtering of relevant and focused subject reports

Business Networking

Connect and expand your reach with aerospace and defense industry specific business networking

Database

Search database containing thousands of reports using proprietary relevance search

Opportunities

Post and browse aerospace and defense business and career opportunities
Free subscription         Join!       Twitter @IndiaDefense
© 2010 India Defence