Whiplash of Controversy

owing to raging controversy on account of VVIP helicopters scam there is increasing pressure on suspending and eventually blacklisting italian conglomerate Finmeccanica and its subsidiary arms. Sooner or later the present government will take a call on this aspect. Whiplash of such measures will certainly impact very adversely on all of Finmeccanica group equipment and system under consideration for acquisition for various warship projects under construction at shipyards, both in public and private sectors, as well as those projects in the pipeline.

as for the present the following projects are likely to be impacted due to current quagmire:

Black Shark heavyweight torpedoes for six Scorpene submarines under construction at MDL.

high-powered air surveillance Selex galileo Radar for indigenous aircraft carrier, Vikrant under construction at Cochin Shipyard Ltd.

127mm high-calibre otomelara guns for seven stealth frigates and four guided missile destroyers, under construction at MDL and garden Reach Shipbuilders & engineers (GRSE), Kolkata and for noPVs under construction at Pipavav Shipyard.

Short range surface-to-air missile systems for four anti-submarine warfare (ASW), Kamorta class corvettes under construction at GRSE.

Joint development of network-centric operation systems by the Bharat electronics in collaboration with the group.

Upgrade of Kamov-28, ASW helicopters for which avionics and radar was supposed to be supplied by Finmeccanica.

Floating of global tenders to identify the alternative sources and the suppliers will have to be resorted to. This will in turn entail inherent delays due to prescribed procurement procedures. The cascading delays in fresh acquisitions will have a downstream effect on the projects under construction and in the pipeline.