National
IAF will get AJT soon, says Fernandes
NEW DELHI, DEC. 8. The Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, has said that vested interests which wanted more ``paybacks'' were probably responsible for the long delay in the purchase of the Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT), a vital requirement for the Indian Air Force, which will now be acquired soon. ``When prices become higher, paybacks become higher'', he said on Friday while launching the inaugural issue of the Defence digest, a bi-monthly magazine dealing with military issues.
Mr. Fernandes' comment came when the retired Air Chief Marshal N.C. Suri, who is on the Editorial board of the magazine, said the price of the AJTs had been fixed at Rs. 864 crores when Air Chief Marshal L.M. Katre was the Air Chief in 1984-85 when the procurement of the trainer was given the green signal. The price of 66 `hawk' AJTs that the IAF is now to get is around $ 1 billion.
He said before he resigned, following the tehelka.com expose on defence deals, he had wanted to put the country's defence procurement needs on the Website but there had been opposition from vendors that it might be difficult for them to do business as they had different prices for ``friendly countries'' and ``not so friendly countries''.
- UNI
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