With no end and money in the pocket in sight, ST Tech's sale of our Made in Spore Pegasus 155mm somewhat self-propelled howitzer is KIVed for some time still. ST Tech was trying to win the bid for the Indian's contract of 140 bimbooms.Our 155mm is not as light as BAE System's battle-proven M777, but the Pegasus can crawl at 12 km/h, an enviable mobility that the other competitors don't have in that category. But seriously, a 12km/h plan for a shoot and scoot is kinda frightening although it is better than nothing. Try driving at 12 km/h on the road and you can feel the roaring impatience of the drivers behind you. Try driving at 12 km/h in a shoot and scoot and you bet you can hear the roaring of the shells landing back at your just vacated position. And the roaring gets nearer and nearer.
A few months back, there was a corruption scandal in the arms tender and everything went to shite. Obviously someone didn't bribe the right people or didn't offer the right bribe and someone else in the Indian military pantheon got greedy or vindictive and voila! No sale for ST Tech yet and got blacklisted instead although the Pegasus has touched down in India .
Was ST Tech the one that tried to bribe and failed or was it collateral damage? Maybe Spore companies learnt from the Suzhou Industrial Park buttscrew from the last decade and gathered that when in Rome, and when kopi money is the norm... just that Spore Temasek-linked companies are relatively new in the game and can't do it well enough yet. As a result, it got blown up and the scandal towed into public scrutiny. Or the other extreme, St Tech minded its own business and got frakked wrongly in a counter-battery fire, where the party offering the bribe is some other close competitor.
Procurements during ordnance board ex-chief's tenure under scanner
Wed, 29 Jul 2009 at 17:23 IST
New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will conduct a special audit of the procurement contracts signed during the tenure of former chairman of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) Sudipto Ghosh, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on corruption charges, parliament was informed Wednesday.
"The Ministry of Defence has requested Comptroller and Auditor General to conduct a special audit of procurement contracts concluded during the tenure of former Chairman of Ordnance Factory Board," Minister of State for Defence M.M Pallam Raju said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
The premier investigating agency has arrested Ghosh on charges of demanding and accepting bribes, for criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The names of seven international and Indian firms figure in the first information report (FIR) the CBI has filed.
Following the FIR, the seven firms - Israeli Military Industries, Singapore Technology, BVT Poland and Media Architects Pvt. Ltd of Singapore, and three Indian companies: T.S. Kishan and Co. Pvt. Ltd., R.K. Machine Tools and HYT Engineering Co - were blacklisted.
The dealings with the companies were "temporarily put on hold" by a June 5 order. The defence ministry then sought advice from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the law ministry on further dealings with these seven companies.
"The CVC report and the law ministry's reply on the issue is awaited," said a senior defence ministry official, requesting anonymity.
The immediate casualty of the blacklisting is the Rs.12 billion ($240 million) deal between IMI and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) March 25 to revive a munitions factory at Nalanda in Bihar along the lines of IMI's ordnance factory in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Hasharon, a project that had taken off after 10 long years.
Originally conceived in the late 1990s when George Fernandes was the defence minister, the Nalanda factory project went into limbo when South African defence major Denel, which was to collaborate in its construction, was blacklisted on corruption charges. The factory was to manufacture the propellant for the ammunition of the Bofors 155 mm howitzers and also Zitara carbines in collaboration with another Indian ordnance factory.
Besides IMI, the blacklisting of Singapore Technology is likely to derail the artillery modernisation programme of the Indian Army that has been hanging fire for over two decades and has been mired in controversy.
Singapore Technology's Pegasus ultra-light howitzer was a leading contender for the Indian Army's order for 140 guns worth Rs.29 billion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1) Comment on the speed abilities of other artillery pieces of other provenance
ReplyDelete2) Comment on the response speed of other armies'
FATA ( field artillery target acquisition )
3) Calculate whether a speed of 12kph can get Pegasus out of harms way when enemy FATA responds
Dude
ReplyDeleteI think I know what you saying but I flunked FATA 101. So 12 km/h is enough most of the time?
BTW, if I'm part of the gun crew, I prolly pimp my Pegasus. Put cup holders, blue light underneath and Mugen stickers.
If enemy Forward Air Observer or Forward Observer or long range recce can find out where your artillery pieces are, 12kph Self-propelled may not get you very far.
ReplyDeleteBy then, I'm not artillery man so perhaps some of our "arty" bros out there can comment?
3SG (NS) Panzer