Coinciding with a modest 7.74% hike in defence spending, the ministry of defence (MoD) on Saturday awarded a major contract to the state-run Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), to manufacture 12 mine counter-measure vessels (MCMVs) at the cost of nearly Rs 32,000 crore. Besides, with the finance minister Arun Jaitley allocating Rs 94,588 crore for procuring armaments, the ministry also moved to procure 38 Pilatus basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force from Switzerland.
Both the decisions were taken at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by defence minister Manohar Parrikar, that lasted nearly three hours. Sources said the government has also approved the purchase of a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft at a cost of Rs 533 crore. This purchase will be a replacement of one of these aircraft that crashed in Gwalior in March last year.
The IAF has set its requirement at 181 trainer aircraft out of which 59 Pilatus PC-7 aircraft have already been inducted. A source said besides buying Pilatus , the remaining requirement of training aircraft for the IAF will be met disingenuously by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) by redeveloping the Hindustan Turbo Trainer (HTT)-40 aircraft. “Adequate orders will have to be given to HAL to make this a commercially viable project. Also this project will be monitored by a committee that will give periodic reports to DAC,” said the source.
It was expected that DAC will take a decision on the bid by Airbus-TATA consortium to replace the ageing Avro transport aircraft fleet of the IAF with C-295 transport carriers. However, the council couldn’t reach any final decision.
The meeting also failed to take decision on US-2i amphibious aircraft purchase from Japan. “This will need further discussion and the defence minister has asked for more information over this,” the source added.
