Rejected MMRCA vendors fight to return

The elimination of four aircraft vendors from the $9.5-billion global competition to sell 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to the Indian Air Force (IAF) has not been accepted quietly. Business Standard has learnt the ministry of defence (MoD) has already got letters from all four, inquiring why their fighters were found unfit.
The first inquiry was from Russia, asking why the IAF had found the MiG-35 unsuitable. Next was the US embassy here, asking the specific reasons that had led to the elimination of the two American fighters, the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet; and the Lockheed Martin F-16IN Super Viper. MoD sources also confirm that Sweden’s Gripen International has written in, seeking details of why the fancied Gripen NG fighter was ruled out.
Earlier, on April 27, the MoD had written to the four vendors, briefly outlining but not detailing the reasons for their elimination. The remaining two vendors —Eurofighter GmbH and Dassault of France — were asked to extend the validity of their price bids, given two years earlier.
Vendor protests after elimination from a tender would usually be rejected as a pro forma exercise. This time, however, an MoD procedural error could provide the vendors a lever to claw their way back into contention. The MoD’s Technical Oversight Committee (TOC), which must review the IAF’s technical evaluation and flight trials to ascertain that procurement procedures were followed in full, had not completed its work before the MoD sent out the rejection letters.
It remains unclear why the MoD sent out its rejection letters before the TOC had ensured full compliance with procedures. Now, the three-man TOC — headed by the Scientific Advisor to the Raksha Mantri (SA to RM), V K Saraswat, with Bharat Electronics Ltd chief, Ashwini Datt and the IAF’s Air Marshal Anil Chopra as members — is scrambling to complete this mandatory review. Emailed a questionnaire by Business Standard, the MoD has not responded.
14/05/11 Ajai Shukla/Business Standard

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Categories: Foreign May 2011