The Army’s attempts to upgrade its short range air defence systems continues to hang fire with the tender for Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) systems stuck again after recent re-trials.
“Re-trials have been completed and two of the three contenders failed to comply with the requirements. The deal is before general staff evaluation and a technical oversight committee is being constituted to look into it,” a source said.
The Army has been attempting to avoid a single vendor situation arising out of non-compliance of some vendors, which would result in cancellation of the tender as per the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP).
The Request for Information (RFI) was issued in 2010. Three companies made it to the trials — MBDA of France, Rosoboronexport of Russia and SAAB of Sweden. Four rounds of trials have been held, with the last one in May this year.
However, last year the Army called for re-confirmatory trials after certain non-compliances by the vendors from the given specifications. Four round of trials have been held so far the last one in May this year.
The VSHORAD tender is intended for the Army and Navy and estimated over $5 bn for 5175 missiles and 1276 single and multi-launchers with stipulated technology transfer requirement for Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSU).
Early this year, the Defence Ministry cancelled a second air defence tender which was underway for Short Range Surface to Air Missile (SRSAM) worth about ₹12,000-14,000 crore and instead decided to go for two more regiments of the indigenously built Akash systems.
