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India planning to buy spares from Bofors, reports Jane's

India is finalising the purchase of much needed spare parts for 410 howitzers bought from the Swedish weapons company Bofors AB in a deal that continues to rock Indian politics, Jane's Defence Weekly has reported.

Official sources in India were quoted by the respected military magazine as saying that military and ministry of defence officials were completing negotiations with two Bofors subsidiaries, Celsiustech in Sweden and AB Celsius in Austria, for spares for the 155 mm towed howitzers.

For nearly ten years, Jane's said yesterday, all dealings with Bofors and its subsidiaries have been banned because of a corruption scandal.

The Indian government enacted an embargo against Bofors after it was revealed that the Swedish company allegedly paid kickbacks of 50 million dollars to secure the 1986 howitzer deal with India. The scandal brought down the government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and investigations are still continuing.

Since the early 1990s, Jane's said, the howitzers have increasingly been suffering from a shortage of spare parts which has led to widespread cannibalisation. The howitzers have undergone over 130 modifications and between 100 and 120 are inoperative, it said.

Earlier attempts by the army to persuade successive Indian governments to import spares for the howitzers failed, the magazine said.

"However, the situation has now become so acute that the only options are either to buy a new weapon system for which there is no money or to buy the spares from a Bofors subsidiary,'' it said.

Jane's also reported that Indian defence officials have visited Britain and Israel to buy specialised equipment for the country's special forces, including submachine guns, sniper rifles, night vision devices and crossbows.

UNI

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