Boeing has submitted two procurement proposals to the Indian Air Force (IAF), offering its AH-64D Apache and the CH-47F Chinook for the country's attack and heavy-lift helicopter competitions, it announced on 23 October.
India is seeking 22 attack helicopters and 15 heavy-lift transport helicopters worth approximately USD1.3 billion. The Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has not set a date for when it will announce the winning proposals, nor announced suggested production rates and delivery schedules.
Boeing's offer is the latest development in the IAF's protracted helicopter procurement programmes.
On 6 February 2008 the head of the IAF, Air Chief Marshal F H Major, announced that the air force was to acquire two new squadrons of attack helicopters and a competition was launched shortly afterwards.
In October that year Boeing withdrew from the bidding as the company felt that it was unable to address India's requirements and formulate a proposal in the time allowed by the MoD.
Bell Helicopters pulled out at about the same time as the AH-1Z Cobra it was offering was only available for export through the US Government's Foreign Military Sales programme. The MoD had previously stated that it did not want to purchase its helicopters through FMS but by direct sale from the manufacturer.
In March of this year the competition was cancelled as, according to the MoD, the companies bidding were unable to meet some of the IAF's key requirements.
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