NEW DELHI \u2014\u00a0Private defense company Tata Power’s Strategic Engineering Division (SED)\u00a0has emerged as the lowest bidder to build 78 portable diver detection sonar (PDDS) systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tata Power SED, whose parent company is Tata Group, quoted $20 million for the Buy and Make (India) category tender,\u00a0against its rivals Elcome Integrated Systems at $26 million and Larsen & Toubro at $30 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This will be for the first time an Indian defense company will build PDDS\u00a0systems for the Indian Navy. The service was previously sourcing the technology from\u00a0Sonardyne in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
A senior Indian Navy official confirmed that no domestic defense company\u00a0has yet built PDDS systems, and that any domestic companies that do so will likely have to team up with foreign defense companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“A formal contact will be awarded to Tata Power SED within the next two months,”\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a 2014 tender for PDDS systems, Tata Power SED and Elcome Integrated Systems teamed up with DSIT of Israel, while Larsen & Toubro partnered with Atlas Elektronik of Germany. Indian state-owned Bharat Electronics Limited,\u00a0which teamed with Thales of France, was technically disqualified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We want domestic companies to build more than 50 percent indigenous components in the PDDS program,” said\u00a0a senior Indian Ministry of Defence\u00a0(MoD) official, who spoke on condition of\u00a0anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Indian Navy wants homemade PDDS systems that are capable of operating\u00a0in shallow, or littoral,\u00a0waters and can\u00a0detect divers, underwater saboteurs and commando mini-submarines or midget subs. The PDDS systems would need to\u00a0be capable of automatic detection and classification of detected, waterborne contacts in 36 degrees azimuth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The PDDS systems will allow a diver to navigate underwater to map targets in real time. Additionally, the tech will gather data from targets and then provide\u00a0information that will allow a diver to map\u00a0topography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the MoD is not very happy with the status\u00a0of another Buy & Make (India) procurement of surface surveillance radar (SSR) systems, of which\u00a0private defense company Nova Integrated Systems, a\u00a0subsidiary of Tata Group, emerged as lowest bidder\u00a0in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The senior MoD official said Nova Integrated Systems quoted a low price of $30 million to win the contract to build 31 SSR systems but is refusing to sign the contract on the grounds\u00a0that the project is not economically viable for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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