Private players to bag 1 lakh-cr army project(Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicles )

[Bang Galore]

Private players to bag 1 lakh-cr army project

Chethan Kumar, Bangalore, February 4, DHNS:

In a wake-up call to the Defence PSUs and in line with the Centre’s policy on indigenisation of defence production, one or more private companies are set to bag a Rs 1,00,000-crore tank project from the Army in the coming months.

Defence sources told Deccan Herald that the project to make Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicles (FICV) –– infantry armoured vehicles –– was in the advanced stages and that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had called for the request for proposal.

Although it is not clear who the private firms would be at this point of time, they said one or more private players, depending on their capabilities, will bag the order, as there are no PSUs contending for the order.

This, they said, was the first time that a defence project had completely barred PSUs from bidding. “The project is only open to private companies and those with adequate technical qualification will bag the order,” they said. Another source said that firms with foreign collaboration/tie-ups will have an edge over the others, given the kind of precision the project will require.

“Unlike in India, foreign companies have the experience in participating in, and executing such projects. Thereby, those with joint ventures or partnerships with such firms will have the upper hand,” another source explained.

The requirement of such tanks, as of today, they said is estimated at about 25,000.
India had in January this year unveiled a new Defence Production Policy that aims to achieve more than 50 per cent indigenisation in the next decade, and provides a major role to the private sector in defence manufacturing.

This project comes almost as the first move from the Centre, and in a very short time after the policy was unveiled.

This also suggests that the policy, which Defence Minister A K Antony and his deputy, M Pallam Raju, have been warning the PSUs of, was a conscious decision which they hope will show dividends in the coming years, making India a more self-reliant nation.

Sources said the army/MoD has already completed the field and facility visits of companies it has narrowed down on, and has asked for assurance of overseas transfer of technology.

The trend of private players getting a bigger pie in defence manufacturing, they say, is here to persist. Besides the FICV project, the Tactical Communication System project, which is at a nascent stage, will also have a bar on the PSUs from bidding, they said.

Private players to bag 1 lakh-cr army project

 

[KS]

^^^ Whatever happened to DRDO Abhay ??

 

[Archie]

The requirement of such tanks, as of today, they said is estimated at about 25,000.

Question is
Do we require 25000 FICV
I mean we have 4000 tanks and i think around 10-12000 FICV should be enough to support them

 

[Veeru]

The requirement of such tanks, as of today, they said is estimated at about 25,000.

Question is
Do we require 25000 FICV
I mean we have 4000 tanks and i think around 10-12000 FICV should be enough to support them

Its a typo, it must be 2500 only.

 

[Veeru]

Old but related news.

Tata Motors enters combat vehicle market

India's domestic manufacturer Tata Motors, best known for cars and trucks, is to enter the combat vehicle market and bid for sales with the Indian army, senior management said.

The announcement was made as Tata unveiled its new Mine Protected Vehicle at the Sixth International Land and Naval Defense Systems Exhibition in New Delhi.

Tata, the country's largest vehicle maker and which has supplied the army since 1958, already manufactures troop carriers and logistics trucks. The addition of the MPV to its lineup is part of company's strategy to widen its defense business to include frontline combat vehicles, a company statement said.

P.M. Telang, managing director of Tata Motors' Indian operations, said the aim "is to participate in the entire defense value chain" and also look for partnerships with foreign and national manufacturers, including other divisions of the wider Tata Group.

Tata's air-conditioned three-door MPV has a V-shaped hull that deflects blasts under the vehicle away from the unit, making it ideally suited for counterinsurgency operations, Tata said.

It includes two roof-top observation hatches, nine firing ports and a 360-degree roof-mounted rotating turret for either light or heavy machine guns. Underbelly protection can be customized to order.

Similarly, it comes in troop carrier, battlefield ambulance and combat post variants with capacity for eight to 12 occupants. Interior space is also available for an ADNAV system allowing night operations and mobility in extremely poor weather conditions.

The 245 PS diesel engine has a top speed of just less than 65 mph and handles a 60 percent gradient with its 860-mm ground clearance. Power-to-weight ratio is 20 horse power per ton.

Operating temperature ranges from minus 20C to 55C and tires are all run-flat systems.

Tata will offer the vehicle also to paramilitary and police forces, the statement said.

Tata officials would not comment openly on numbers of any new contract with the Indian army but a first order is believed to be as high as 1,000 units, a report by the national vehicle news Web site Wheels Unplugged said.

Tata's MPV will be up against a similar unit from Defense Land Systems India, a joint venture between the Indian company Mahindra and Mahindra and global defense manufacturer BAE Systems. It's new Mine Protected Vehicle India, the first product from the joint venture, is based on BAE System's RG family of vehicles derived from mine-protected vehicles from South Africa. The MPV-I was developed for the counterinsurgency work against the communist Naxalite movement in the northeast state of West Bengal.

Also in the running is Ashok Leyland with an MPV based on its Stallion 4x4 armored car, joint development with South African company Paramount Group. It has a maximum road speed of nearly 50 mph and a road range exceeding 600 miles without refueling, Ashok Leyland claims.

Tata displayed several of its production vehicles at Defexpo. These included its mobile 8x8 weapon platform, a light specialist vehicle for fast mobility and its 4X4 LPA 713 light armored troop carrier. The ATC has a maximum speed of around 65 mph and has optional automatic transmission.

According to Wheels Unplugged, another senior Tata official said the company would "participate in production of futuristic infantry combat vehicles which would work as a system integrator, besides participating in the upgrading and overhaul program of the Indian army's T-72 tank."

Tata Motors enters combat vehicle market

 

[Veeru]

Old but related news

Indian industry at landmark defence tender

India’s defence industry is poised at a landmark. On August 25, four Indian companies — three private and one public — will submit bids in the defence ministry’s first-ever ‘Indian industry only’ competition to develop a high-tech weapon system for the defence forces.

The four companies — Tata Motors; the Mahindra Group, L&T and the Ministry of Defence (MoD)-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) — are competing to design and build 2,600 new-generation Future Infantry Combat Vehicles (FICVs) to replace the Indian Army’s aging fleet of Russian-designed BMP-IIs. In an American-style showdown, two of these vendors will be nominated to develop a prototype each and the winning design selected for the FICV.

While the cost of developing and manufacturing 2,600 FICVs can only be roughly estimated, senior executives from two of the competing companies say that the bill could add up to Rs 50,000 crore. This will make it India’s most expensive defence contract so far.

Infantry Combat Vehicles (ICVs) are lightly armoured, highly mobile, tracked vehicles that look like small tanks. Travelling deep into enemy territory alongside tank columns, each ICV carries 7-8 infantry soldiers. These jawans, once dismounted, physically occupy and defend captured territory until the slower-moving infantry divisions can catch up with the strike formations.

MoD will fund 80 per cent of the cost of developing the FICV, while the selected contractor will pay the rest 20 per cent. It has been mandated that the FICV must have an indigenous content of at least 50 per cent. With a development time of 7-8 years, the FICV should be ready by 2018.

This indigenous development of an FICV has been enabled by the Defence Procurement Procedure of 2008 (DPP-2008), which lays down a “Make” procedure for developing “high-tech, complex systems” through Indian industry. Following this procedure, MoD surveyed private and public industry to zero in on potential contractors. The four companies identified were then issued with an Expression of Interest (EoI), which listed out the capabilities that the army expected from the FICV.

Sources familiar with the EoI say that the FICV will be operated by three crewmembers, and carry seven additional soldiers with combat loads; it must provide protection from bullets fired by 14.5-millimetre calibre weapons; it must be amphibious, i.e. capable of floating in water; it must be air-transportable, which would imply a maximum weight of 18-20 tonnes; and it must have a cannon and be capable of firing anti-tank missiles.

In their responses to the EoI on August 25, each of the four competitors will detail their proposal for developing the FICV, the key project milestones, the estimated capital expenditure, the technology they will include and how that will be developed or purchased, and the minimum order that they would need to set up a financially viable production line.

Those responses will be evaluated by the MoD’s Integrated Project Management Team, which will select two contractors. Over a fixed number of years, the two contractors will develop their respective FICV prototypes. The Indian Army will select the better of the two by carrying out field trials.

But this is not a winner-takes-all competition. Since the MoD wants to retain two production lines, the winner will be given 65-70 per cent of the order, the runner-up will build 30-35 per cent of the army’s requirement of FICVs, provided that the company agrees to build the winning design at the same cost as the winner.

With two assembly lines operating, India’s private defence players expect that the FICV contract will create an ecosystem of suppliers extending far beyond the winner of the contract. Brig Khutab Hai, who heads the Mahindra Group’s defence business, says: “The FICV project will be a huge boost to the Indian defence industry in R&D, manufacture, and in developing Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers from the small and medium sector industries.”

This attempt by the MoD to harness private contractors is backstopped by the public sector: The Defence R&D Organisation believes that it will be approached for key technologies; and the Ordnance Factory Board, which manufactures the BMP-II at Medak, in Andhra Pradesh, for production assistance.

At least two of the private contractors believe that it would be wasteful to set up a new production line. Says a senior executive in one of the contending companies: “Ordnance Factory, Medak, is a national asset and it would be lying idle at that time. We could build the FICV at Medak — on a government-owned-company-operated basis — instead of setting up a brand new facility.”

http://www.defence.pk/forums/india-defence/68721-indian-industry-landmark-defence-tender.html

 

[ashok321]

And how much money would go to Sonia maino through Anthonio?

 

[angeldemon_007]

The requirement of such tanks, as of today, they said is estimated at about 25,000.

What is the source??/ It is 2500. Also it has told nothing new except the article has kept the names of companies in the dark.

There is nothing new in this article. Everybody new there is such kind of project to come and that 3 pvt. and a public sector firm were supposed to participate and that the project was most certainly going to pvt. firms because that public sector firm will be busy in FMBT. I could have written this kind of article.

I hope now they hurry up because this US style project will also take a lot of time in development. In the previous reports, the names were even mentioned but now nothing.

 

[jha]

In place of awarding any one company, it would be better if two or, three companies are asked to cooperate and bring out a better product..

 

[Kinetic]

I think Ajai Shukla had a details report on F-ICV project. Where three/four players will present their product to the Army and two will be selected for competition. Among these two the winner will make most of the FICVs while the runners up will built the rest.

^^^ Whatever happened to DRDO Abhay ??

Actually Abhay was never meant to be in service but a tech demonstrator to develop futuristic ICV technologies.

 

[satishkumarcsc]

Well the battle between wheels and tracks is going to start in India....whomsoever has been there and see it...will know!

 

[KS]

^^^Konjam explain pannunga boss.

 

[angeldemon_007]

Where three/four players will present their product to the Army and two will be selected for competition. Among these two the winner will make most of the FICVs while the runners up will built the rest.

Yeah it was an old article. Participating companies tata, mahindra, lnt and ofb. Two will be shortlisted and the winner will make 60-70% while the remaining will be made by the runner-up.

 

[angeldemon_007]

What are we doing in Hummer kind of vehicles ??/ Also would we be going for something like Joint Light Tactical Vehicle ??/

 

[jetti]

we should build invisible vehicle for combat.. thats the best way