HAL team's visit to Dassault facilities in France on hold

New Delhi: The visit by a HAL team to Dassault facilities in France has been put on hold amid efforts by the government to verify the linkages between AgustaWestland’s parent firm Finmecannica and other European defence companies.

The defence ministry earlier this month scrapped a deal with AgustaWestland for procuring 12 VVIP choppers after charging it with breaching contractual obligations.

A high-level team of HAL was scheduled to visit France to visit the facilities of the Rafale fighter jet as part of the ongoing negotiations between the two sides for jointly producing the aircraft but it was cancelled at the last moment, said defence ministry sources in New Delhi.

The HAL team was also scheduled to meet other aerospace companies such as Eurocopter and Turbomeca for exploring potential to work on ongoing and future projects, they said.

The visit has been put on hold at a time when after cancelling the VVIP chopper deal, India is verifying linkages between European firms and the Finmkecannica group.

The French firm Dassault Aviation was selected by India to supply 126 Rafale combat aircraft to the Indian Air Force as part of its Medium-Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal expected to be worth over Rs 60,000 crore.

India and France are holding negotiations on commercial aspects of the deal and have had differences on several points, including the work share for Reliance Industries Limited in the project.

HAL has to produce 108 of the 126 Rafale aircraft in India as the lead integrator in the project while 18 aircraft would be supplied directly by the company from its facilities in France.

After scrapping AgustaWestland’s contract to supply choppers, the defence ministry has also barred Finmecannica and its five other group companies from taking part in its military exhibition Defexpo-2014 in New Delhi.

Proposals to procure equipment from its group companies have also been put on hold including one to buy heavy-weight torpedos from WASS to equip the under construction Scorpene submarines in Mumbai.

The defence ministry has also initiated a process to blacklist the Anglo-Italian firm and is holding consultations with law ministry and CBI in this regard before taking a final decision.

PTI