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 today.
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.
