CAG finds flaws in acquisition of Apache, Chinook helicopters

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on 11 purchases by the Indian Air Force (IAF) is in the news for what it says about the Rafale deal, but pertinently, it has highlighted several issues in the procurement process followed by India to buy weapons and systems including heavy-lift helicopters, attack choppers and trainer aircraft, and asked the government to change the process to cut delays and keep the military operationally ready.

In a 141-page report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, the CAG said the IAF’s qualitative requirements for heavy-lift helicopters were aligned to the features of US defence firm Boeing CH-47F Chinook choppers.

“The max payload capacity was reduced to 11,000 kg as against the 20,000 kg of Mi-26 helicopters. Seating capacity was also reduced to 45 troops as against the 82 troops of Mi-26s. The max under slung load was reduced to 10,000 kg as against 20,000 kg of Mi-26. The revised ASQR parameters matched those of Chinook helicopter,” the report said.

The Chinook edged out Russian firm Rostvertol Mi-26 helicopters to win the $1.18 billion deal for 15 choppers. IAF has been operating Mi-26 choppers since 1987.

On the Apache attack helicopter, the Audit found that Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued to seven vendors and only three responded.

“All of them could not meet the full set of Air Staff Qualitative Requirements (ASQRs). The tender process was cancelled. The ASQR parameters which could not be met were charged/deleted and fresh tendering was done.

“If these ASQR parameters were not needed, they should not have been included in the first place,” it said.

CAG also found that ASQRs were revised five times between 2006 and 2009 based on what vendors had to offer rather than what IAF really needed. The requirement for chaff and flares — defensive countermeasures deployed by military aircraft — was missing in the May 2009 RFP, which was amended in September 2009.

“This highlights the lack of professionalism in fixing ASQRs in the defence acquisition process,” the report said. CAG highlighted delays at different stages of acquisition including contract negotiation and approval by the competent financial authority (CFA).

“While the contract negotiating committee took a considerable period of 27 months as against one-and-a-half months prescribed in DPP-2008 (Defence Procurement Procedure), it achieved a price reduction of 2.17%,” the audit found. Also, CFA approval took 10 months instead of the prescribed four.

It found that the defence ministry also bought missiles that were past their shelf life as part of the same deal. It said the US government was supplying missiles whose normal life of 10 years had expired and the ones to be fitted on the attack helicopters would be 14 to 16 years old at the time of delivery.

The report said preparing ASQRs with inputs from a few vendors posed the risk of aligning the parameters to their platforms. “The ASQR parameters which could not be met were changed/deleted and fresh tendering was done. If these parameters were not needed and they should not have been included in the first place,” the CAG said.

The report revealed that a simulator for C-130J pilots was installed in December 2012 but training began on it only in November 2016 due to a pending usage rate contract with Lockheed Martin. CAG said according to an IAF probe report, one of the reasons for the March 2014 C-130J crash was “inadequate experience and training” of the crew. The five-man crew was killed in that crash near Gwalior.

 

Konark Bassi

Konark, a great human being by nature is also a good learner and a deep thinker. Konark portrays his incredible writing skills into journalism and writes what he finds authentic and acceptable. He is a good social worker and enjoys his time caring for others.

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