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.
The MCMVs will hunt for mines with a high-definition sonar and then destroy them using explosives by remote-controlled mine-disposal systems. The navy wants the MCMVs to be an important element of its blue-water navy, which is being built to protect Indian interests from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, a senior navy official said.
The MCMVs will replace the 12 existing Pondicherry-class ocean minesweepers procured in the 1970s and 1980's.The shortlisted shipyards will be expected to transfer technology so six of the craft can be produced at India's state-owned Goa Shipyard.
The MCMVs will be made of reinforced plastic with help from several Indian
electronic companies that also will provide a variety of radar.A navy official said the MCMVs should be capable of operating in areas of naval interest to locate, classify, sweep, hunt and neutralize all types of marooned and drifting mines. The MCMVs will also be deployed with local naval defense and search-and-rescue missions.
Thevessel should be 50 to 60 meters long, no wider than 11 meters, have a
maximum speed of at least 16 knots and be able to operate at least 10 days with a planned lifespan of 30 years.
The MCMVs will be fitted with one lightweight, 30mm anti-surface air gun, two 12.7mm heavy machine guns and two Kavach chaff launchers developed by the
state-owned Gun Carriage Factory at Jabalpur.
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.
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.
State-run GSL gets Rs 32000-crore defence contract | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis
