Helicopter Corruption Case Rocks Indian Parliament

NEW DELHI — Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told Parliament on Wednesday that the procurement process was circumvented in the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland UK.

Parrikar was replying during a debate on the alleged corruption charges in the purchase of VVIP helicopters by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2010.

Last month a Milan, Italy, court ruled that the $553 million AgustaWestland contract for buying VVIP helicopters from Italian company Finmeccanica, signed in 2010, involved payoffs to Indian officials.

Parrikar gave a chronology of the procurement process from when the IAF first sought to acquire the VVIP helicopters to replace the aging MI-8 helicopter.

India's Upper House of Parliament hotly debated the VVIP helicopter purchase, some members calling it a "scam." While some members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the former Congress government of changing technical specifications in a bid to favor AgustaWestland's AW-101 helicopter, the Congress Party refuted the charges.

One matter all the parties in the debate agreed to: India's investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), should speed its investigation of the VVIP deal.

India's former Defense Minister A.K. Antony demanded that AgustaWestland and parent company-Finmeccanica should not be allowed to participate in any of the future "Make in India" projects.

India terminated the contract for the 12 VVIP helicopters in January 2014 with AgustaWestland on grounds of a breach of the pre-contract integrity pact.

Email: vraghuvanshi@defensenews.com

More In Industry

Saab unveils technology incubator using Enforcer 3 as test bed

“We are trying to get capability to the fleet in months,” said Erik Smith, the chief executive of Saab's U.S. branch.

Lockheed to supply Australia with air battle management system

Overhauling Australia’s overhead defenses is expected to generate hundreds of local jobs as well as open the door to a multibillion-dollar export market.

Defense Innovation Unit prepares to execute $800 million funding boost

DIU Director Doug Beck said he doesn’t foresee any issues with quickly putting to work the $983 million in FY-24 funding Congress provided in March.

Army may swap AI bill of materials for simpler ‘baseball cards’

"We know innovation's happening in the open-source environment," said the Army's Bharat Patel. "We also know who's contributing to the open source."

How L3Harris is shoring up its small satellite supply chain

The president of L3Harris’ space systems sector, recently sat down with C4ISRNET to discuss the challenges of developing a diverse yet mature supply base.