| Without saying bribes were paid by rivals, European aviation consortium Eurocopter, whose bid for supply of 197 light helicopters to the Indian Army was cancelled by the government, said “pressure was brought to scrap the deal”.
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| The $1-billion deal was scrapped when it was found that the aircraft demonstrated to the Indian government were a civilian variant of a military aircraft.
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| At a press conference, Eurocopter vehemently denied the charge that its specifications were short of the mark and said it won the contract after trials in Siachen and the heat of the Thar. It also said it had received no official intimation of the cancellation of the tenders.
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| “For us, it stands where it was,” Christopher Bach, spokesman of the Paris-based consortium whose parent company, the EADS, also makes the Airbus passenger aircraft, said.
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| He said the company was invited on February 6 this year for price negotiations after the defence ministry cleared the helicopter for technical specifications. The company says allegations had been made about its aircraft to undermine it though it was the choice of both the defence ministry and the services.
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| The Eurocopter got the contract after four other contenders — Bell, Italy’s Agusta, and Russia’s Kamov and Kazan – which were initially in the fray dropped out. Bell was the nearest but it was struck off the list after the test machine it sent could not perform the three-axis vector, an essential requirement for flying in areas like the Siachen glacier in Jammu and Kashmir.
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| The three-axis vector enables the helicopter perform a ‘U’-like manoeuvre to navigate adverse weather conditions in mountainous areas. When this deficiency was pointed out to the manufacturers, officials said, the company offered to either show a video of the helicopter performing a similar manoeuvre in Canada or to fly out Indian officials to witness it in person.
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| But the government-selected Eurocopter too was rejected after what it showcased at trials was not the AS550 C3 Fennec military version but the AS350 B3 Ecureil civilian variant.
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| Today, however, Bach said, “Our machines passed all trials of cold start, axle trials, weight lifts and others of highly professional standards put up by the army.”
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| He said the civilian helicopter was displayed in full knowledge of the army and defence ministry. |
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