Among others, the tender has gone to Alenia Aermacchi that represents the aeronautics division of Finmeccanica and is Italy’s largest aeronautics company. It is pitching for its C-27J Spartan aircraft.

Finmeccanica and its helicopter manufacturing subsidiary AgustaWestland are under scanner for their role in the IAF purchase of 12 VVIP choppers.

The other foreign firms that received the tender included Ilyushin (Russia), Lockheed Martin (USA), Embraer (Brazil) and EADS CASA, which is a part of Airbus (Europe).

But the Rs 12,000-crore acquisition programme—approved by the defence acquisition council last year—may open up the doors of military aviation for the private sector as one of the RFP terms is inclusion of an Indian production agency for producing the aircraft in India. While the first 16 aircraft will be delivered by the foreign manufacturer in a flyaway condition, the remaining 40 will be made in India.

Since Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is the only Indian aircraft manufacturer at the moment, this IAF programme provides an opportunity to other Indian biggies like Tatas, Mahindra and Reliance to open up home-grown manufacturing bases in the private sector.

The original equipment manufacturers have been given two months extra time to tie up with Indian partners, instead of three months generally given in the military RFP.
The first batch of 16 aircraft, to be made in India, will have 30 per cent indigenous component. The quantum of indigenous systems will subsequently be increased to 60 per cent in the final 24 aircraft