With defence giant Singapore Technologies (ST) still in trouble due to the ongoing CBI investigation into charges of bribing Indian officials, a mega Army contract valued at more than $1 billion seems to be heading the American way.
A top defence official has said the Defence Ministry is looking at other options, including a direct military purchase from the US, for the ultra light 155 mm howitzer contract in which ST was the only contender.
Making it clear that the procurement — the Army urgently requires 145 of the light mountain guns for deployment on the China and Pakistan borders — has gone into deep freeze, the official said trials for the gun would not be carried out as per the advice of the Law Ministry.
As reported earlier, the MoD had last month allowed trials in cases where tainted defence firms are contenders, as long as it was a multiple-vendor situation. This has again quashed ST’s hopes that its gun would be tested for the ultra light contest. The ST gun, which was under shipment for trials when the CBI arrested former OFB chairman Sudipta Ghosh, is currently lying idle in Pokharan
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