Russia pulls out of $1 billion contest to supply helicopters to Indian Coast Guard

Russia has pulled out of a $1 billion contest to supply twin-engine helicopters to the Indian Coast Guard, with the procurement now heading to a single vendor situation as there was no participation from the US side either.

Sources said that the ongoing procurement process for the new twin-engine heavy helicopters for the Coast Guard now just has Airbus as the single vendor. The Coast Guard requires 14 new helicopters for a variety of offshore security and surveillance tasks.

The Coast Guard has been trying to procure the choppers since 2012 but previous attempts have not worked out due to technical and commercial reasons. The last such attempt was in 2018 after the contest was withdrawn amid allegations of leak of confidential documents.

Surprisingly, the US did not take part in the contest, even though the Sikorsky S92 had met all the technical requirements in the tests carried out in 2018. The American side could look at a direct government-to-government offering for the requirement.