Indian Homeland Security News and Updates

Eurocopter Bids for $8 Billion in Indian Defence Contracts

February 2010, New Delhi: Eurocopter said on Tuesday it was bidding for Indian military contracts worth up to eight billion dollars, including a deal scrapped in 2007 after it was awarded to the European helicopter maker.

"We have bid for contracts from the Indian army, air force, navy, coast guard and others worth between seven and eight billion dollars," the company's marketing vice-president Rainer Farid told AFP at an arms fair in New Delhi.

He also said that Eurocopter, the helicopter unit of European aerospace giant EADS, had resubmitted a bid for
a 600-million-dollar deal to sell India 197 army helicopters.

The deal was scrapped in December 2007, after it had been awarded to Eurocopter amid allegations in the Indian media of wrongdoing by the firm.

The signing of the deal was meant to have been a highlight of a visit to India by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in January 2008.

The company had been contracted to sell 60 helicopters in a "fly-away" condition to the Indian army, while the remaining 137 were to be assembled at state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in India (HAL).

The new tender for the helicopters, for which the Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland and Russia's Kamov are also in race, is scheduled to be awarded later this year, Indian defence ministry officials told AFP.

Eurocopter's Farid said the firm was also hoping to supply 30 helicopters to the Indian coast guard, for which tenders would be opened next year, and added it was also in the race to produce 200 helicopters jointly with the HAL.

"We are also bidding for a contract to replace 40 ageing helicopters of the Indian navy but the process is currently at an initial stage," Farid said.

India is among the world's top 10 military spenders with an annual defence budget last year of 1,420 billion rupees (31.55 billion dollars).

Source: AFP ?