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New Delhi. Boeing has agreed to maintain the price offers for Apache and Chinook helicopters for the Indian Air Force (IAF) one last time for another month till the end of September.
According to authoritative sources, this is being done at the request of the IAF to facilitate more time for a Government decision on the signing of the long-pending contracts. A formal communication to the Indian Government should be conveyed around the beginning of September.
This is the 13th extension of the price deadline by Boeing, and represents the final window for acquiring these vitally required helicopters without renegotiating the price. The last extension was valid for two months up to August 31. At current prices, the contracts for 22 Apache AH-64Es gunships and 15 Chinook CH-47F helicopters will together aggregate to about $2.5b. Since the beginning of 2015, Boeing has been conveying its inability to maintain the price indefinitely. Contract negotiations concluded in 2013.
According to authoritative sources, this is being done at the request of the IAF to facilitate more time for a Government decision on the signing of the long-pending contracts. A formal communication to the Indian Government should be conveyed around the beginning of September.
This is the 13th extension of the price deadline by Boeing, and represents the final window for acquiring these vitally required helicopters without renegotiating the price. The last extension was valid for two months up to August 31. At current prices, the contracts for 22 Apache AH-64Es gunships and 15 Chinook CH-47F helicopters will together aggregate to about $2.5b. Since the beginning of 2015, Boeing has been conveying its inability to maintain the price indefinitely. Contract negotiations concluded in 2013.
If the Indian Government fails to finalise the order, there would be a new price line, and that would mean re-opening the entire acquisition process since it was done on a competitive basis. Russian Mi-28 'Havoc' and Mi-26 'Halo' had competed against the Apache and Chinook respectively, and the IAF had selected the American helicopters.
Notably, the Indian Army is keenly waiting to place its own order for 39 Apaches as “a follow-on” to the IAF acquisition, with the same specifications as those of IAF and apparently the same price. It is not clear if the Ministry of Defence, which has already cleared the Army’s proposal, will put the Army requirement in the options clause to ensure the same price.
Ahead of the latest extension, which sources described as “the final one”, Ambassador Richard Verma, the US envoy to India, and Major General James McDonald of the US Army Security Assistance Command had written separately to the Indian Ministry of Defence requesting early signing of the contracts, and stating that the price deadline could not be stretched beyond August 31.
Upon being served a final notice of sorts, IAF’s Assistant Chief of Air Staff (ACAS) Air Vice Marshal Sandeep Singh is learnt to have sought 30 more days on the assurance that the contracts were on the verge of being cleared at the highest political level. This is an indication that the matter would soon be submitted for approval to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
Both the helicopters have relevance to India’s tough terrain guarded by IAF and the Army’s new Mountain Strike Corps, which is being raised for deterrence along the Himalayan frontiers, where some areas have been claimed by both Pakistan and China.
In any case, IAF’s fleets of heavy lift and combat choppers have already exhausted their Total Technical Life (TTL) as laid down by the manufacturers in the erstwhile Soviet Union from whom they were acquired a quarter century back.
Source:- ..:: India Strategic ::. Defence Industry: Boeing to hold Apache, Chinook prices for another month one last time
According to authoritative sources, this is being done at the request of the IAF to facilitate more time for a Government decision on the signing of the long-pending contracts. A formal communication to the Indian Government should be conveyed around the beginning of September.
This is the 13th extension of the price deadline by Boeing, and represents the final window for acquiring these vitally required helicopters without renegotiating the price. The last extension was valid for two months up to August 31. At current prices, the contracts for 22 Apache AH-64Es gunships and 15 Chinook CH-47F helicopters will together aggregate to about $2.5b. Since the beginning of 2015, Boeing has been conveying its inability to maintain the price indefinitely. Contract negotiations concluded in 2013.
According to authoritative sources, this is being done at the request of the IAF to facilitate more time for a Government decision on the signing of the long-pending contracts. A formal communication to the Indian Government should be conveyed around the beginning of September.
This is the 13th extension of the price deadline by Boeing, and represents the final window for acquiring these vitally required helicopters without renegotiating the price. The last extension was valid for two months up to August 31. At current prices, the contracts for 22 Apache AH-64Es gunships and 15 Chinook CH-47F helicopters will together aggregate to about $2.5b. Since the beginning of 2015, Boeing has been conveying its inability to maintain the price indefinitely. Contract negotiations concluded in 2013.
If the Indian Government fails to finalise the order, there would be a new price line, and that would mean re-opening the entire acquisition process since it was done on a competitive basis. Russian Mi-28 'Havoc' and Mi-26 'Halo' had competed against the Apache and Chinook respectively, and the IAF had selected the American helicopters.
Notably, the Indian Army is keenly waiting to place its own order for 39 Apaches as “a follow-on” to the IAF acquisition, with the same specifications as those of IAF and apparently the same price. It is not clear if the Ministry of Defence, which has already cleared the Army’s proposal, will put the Army requirement in the options clause to ensure the same price.
Ahead of the latest extension, which sources described as “the final one”, Ambassador Richard Verma, the US envoy to India, and Major General James McDonald of the US Army Security Assistance Command had written separately to the Indian Ministry of Defence requesting early signing of the contracts, and stating that the price deadline could not be stretched beyond August 31.
Upon being served a final notice of sorts, IAF’s Assistant Chief of Air Staff (ACAS) Air Vice Marshal Sandeep Singh is learnt to have sought 30 more days on the assurance that the contracts were on the verge of being cleared at the highest political level. This is an indication that the matter would soon be submitted for approval to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
Both the helicopters have relevance to India’s tough terrain guarded by IAF and the Army’s new Mountain Strike Corps, which is being raised for deterrence along the Himalayan frontiers, where some areas have been claimed by both Pakistan and China.
In any case, IAF’s fleets of heavy lift and combat choppers have already exhausted their Total Technical Life (TTL) as laid down by the manufacturers in the erstwhile Soviet Union from whom they were acquired a quarter century back.
Source:- ..:: India Strategic ::. Defence Industry: Boeing to hold Apache, Chinook prices for another month one last time
. j.k
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