Fast-track acquisition: US offers its CG choppers to India

New Delhi, June 8 (PTI) The US has offered to lease out
12 of its Coast Guard's twin-engine helicopters to India which
is looking to strengthen its coastal security following the
Mumbai terror attacks.

"As the acquisition process will take time, we (India)
want to have 12 twin-engine helicopters on lease for the Coast
Guard. The US has offered to lease out its Coast Guard
helicopters to us," a senior Defence Ministry official said
here Monday.

However, India has also got some offers from within the
country. But it has to be seen if these civilian helicopters
would meet the Coast Guard's military needs, the official
said.

Under the fast-track acquisition process, the Coast Guard
was asked by the government to purchase 12 Dornier transport
aircraft for medium-range surveillance activities and the
proposal has been approved already.

"The purchase of 12 dorniers for the Coast Guard has been
approved and government-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
will supply five Dorniers by this year end," the official
said, when asked about the fast-track acquisition process in
the wake of the 26/11 attacks.

The 12 twin-engine helicopters to be leased were meant to
augment the Dornier fleet for surveillance and reconnaissance
activities.

In all, India is looking to purchase about a dozen items,
mostly ships and aircraft, for its Coast Guard and Navy, which
has been designated this February as the overall in-charge for
matters concerning the security of the 7,500-km-long coast.

"About 12 Request for Proposal (RFP) are to be issued
under fast track acquisition process. Six or seven are ready
and after they are issued, the acquisition will begin in six
or seven months," he said.

The Navy, which would get its own 1000-man Sagar Prahari
Bal to protect its own installations along the coast, was in
need of 80 boats for the new force.

"Global tenders will be issued and in four or five months
the process would be completed," the official said.

India will be issuing RFPS in a month for coastal radars,
which would be fitted on lighthouses and at Coast Guard
installations all along the coastline, the official said,
adding Aerostat radars were not under consideration of the
Navy as yet.

Noting that the Navy needed some offshore patrol
vessels, the official said shipyards would take at least a
couple of years to build them.

Regarding the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
radars that could pick signals from fishing boats that would
be fitted with transponders, the official said a foreign
company had expressed interest to supply and were willing to
come up with an action plan.

"Indian companies too have offered the AIS radars. We
have to see if these are suitable. We want it to be done
quickly and by the end of this year the AIS radars should be
fully operational," he said.

The AIS radars are being installed and the Indian
registered fishing boats are to be fitted with transponders to
identify movement of foreign vessels, keeping in view that
a Pakistani vessel brought the terrorists into Mumbai just
before the 26/11 terror attacks. PTI