India May Reissue VSHORAD Tender Under Domestic Make And Buy Category For Indian Companies

India may reissue $1.5 billion man-portable very short-range air defense (VSHORAD) system tender under domestic ‘make and buy’ category for Indian companies.

India may cancel the existing tender. This is the second time that the tender is being cancelled since its launch in 2010, but this time it is in favour of domestic companies only competition, DefenseNews quoted India MoD officials as saying.

The Tri-service purchase requirement of the VSHORAD tender was accused of lack of transparency in the procurement process by competitors MBDA, Rosoboronexport and Saab earlier, The government is weighing a new VSHORAD tender in the Buy and Make (India) category, restricted to Indian companies, the news website quoted unnamed MoD sources as saying.

For the 2010 tender, Rosoboronexport fielded the Igla-S, Saab offered the RBS 70 NG and MBDA offered the Mistral system for trials.

The procurement process was also halted in 2012 as the MoD studied a proposal from US company Raytheon to supply the Stinger man-portable VSHORAD on a government-to-government basis. However, negotiations yielded no agreement because of issues relating to the transfer of technology.

Since the tender involves technology transfer, Saab had teamed with ndia's state-owned Bharat Electronics, while MBDA forged ties with privately owned Indian company Larsen & Toubro. Rosoboronexport chose to field the Igla-S system on its own.

However, should the government opt to restrict the tender to domestic companies, "fresh teaming up will be made as the private-sector defense sector has seen major new entrants like Pipavav Defence, Bharat Forge and Punj Lloyd," according to Mahindra Singh, a retired Indian Army major general.