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The race for the prestigious and the most anticipated multi-billion dollar acquisition deal for 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) is heating up. The latest fiasco that is brewing up has been the showdown between France’s Dassault Aviation and Lockheed Martin of the US.
French firm Dassault Aviation is currently considering to approach India for disqualifying Lockheed Martin from the race since the US illegally obtained access to classified documents relating to the competition.
Sources said Dassault of France is contemplating to lodge a protest against Lockheed Martin and due to the political nature of the issue, it will be the French government who will initiate the move.
Sources here pointed out that tensions have been mounting between Lockheed Martin and Dassault over the MMRCA deal. Earlier, it was reported that Dassault was eliminated from the MMRCA contract because it had not fulfilled some of the technical requirements.
But weeks after that it was announced that Dassault was in the race. Dassault Aviation has earlier blamed that US firm Lockheed Martin was responsible for those reports. Now, Dassault is determined to get back at Lockheed Martin, citing charges of corruption in clear violation of the guidelines in India’s Defence Procurement Policy (DPP).
Lockheed Martin’s Asia Chief, Rick Kirkland, was quoted saying that while Lockheed Martin had never possessed classified Indian procurement documents, the company’s US headquarters had written to the MoD in New Delhi seeking clarification over two “unclassified files” that had found their way into Lockheed’s possession.
Interestingly, Lockheed Martin’s India Chief Operating Officer Douglas A Hartwick has been recalled to the US without any replacement in India. Defence ministry sources say Hartwick was removed as CEO after Lockheed Martin was found in possession of two folders containing classified information relating to defence purchases.
According to this account, these folders found their way to the corporate headquarters of Lockheed Martin, in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. These files were mistakenly placed on the desk of an officer unfamiliar with Lockheed Martin’s operations in India in January 2009 and after realizing that it was “classified” information, Lockheed Martin referred the folders back to the Indian defence ministry in New Delhi.
Richard Kirkland, president of Lockheed Martin’s South Asia operations, has clearly denied any foul play on the part of Lockheed Martin and claims that it does not have any information that is not already in the public domain. Kirkland declined to provide details of the two reports referred back to India’s defence ministry, but emphasised that neither related to the Indian tender for 126 MMRCA.
India has been dealing with Lockheed Martin cautiously for a long time and now that classified information has leaked out and ethical laws may have been flouted, Lockheed Martin will face stricter attention and probe in any future deals. The company is pitching in a range of military systems in India including the F-16 IN fighter; the F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as the IAF’s next generation fighter and the Aegis Combat System for the Indian Navy’s warships. India also signed a contract worth over a billion dollars to buy six Lockheed Martin C-130 J Super Hercules transport aircraft.
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