Govt to relaunch hunt for mid-air refuellers

NEW DELHI: In a setback to IAF’s plans to further boost its ‘strategic reach’ capabilities, the government has decided to re-float the tender for acquiring six new mid-air refuelling aircraft for fighter jets after scrapping the virtually finalised $1.5-billion contract with European aerospace major EADS.
‘‘The RFP (request for proposal) will be re-floated and will go EADS, Boeing (US) and Ilyushin (Russian), among others, for a global competition now,’’ said a defence ministry official on Wednesday.
Defence minister A K Antony, on his part, told Parliament last month that the finance ministry had ‘‘expressed certain reservations relating to the competitiveness of the bids and the reasonableness of the price’’ for the IAF project to acquire the six new flight refueller aircraft.
http://machbirds.blogspot.com/2010/01/govt-to-relaunch-hunt-for-mid-air.html