Former Indian Air Force head Air Chief Marshal S C Tyagi faces a Central Bureau of Investigation charge sheet for allegedly diluting a single specification of the VVIP helicopter that India was buying.



In the so-called Air Staff Qualitative Requirements, the helicopter’s service ceiling was lowered from 6,000 to 4,500 metres. This made the AW-101 helicopter eligible and its Anglo-Italian manufacturer, AgustaWestland, bagged the Euro 556 million (Rs 4,377 crore) IAF contract for 12 helicopters.

That violation, now under investigation, is dwarfed in the IAF’s purchase of the Pilatus PC-7 Mark II basic trainer aircraft (BTA), where at least 12 benchmarks were changed between March and October 2009, including some relating to pilot safety.



But they allowed the PC-7 Mark II, fielded by Swiss company Pilatus, to qualify and win an IAF order worth $640 million (Rs 3,780 crore) for 75 BTA.

Business Standard, which is in possession of the documents relating to this case, revealed that up to September 29, 2009, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was indigenously developing 181 basic trainer aircraft for the IAF, dubbed the Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40).



On March 5, 2009, the IAF laid down stringent performance benchmarks -- dubbed “Preliminary Air Staff Qualitative Requirements”, or PSQR.

But these began getting diluted in September 2009, when the MoD permitted the IAF to import 75 BTA through a global tender.



Within days, the IAF issued relaxed criteria, termed “Air Staff Qualitative Requirements”, or ASQR, in a document numbered ASQR 18/09.



While the Pilatus PC-7 Mark II would not have met the earlier PSQR that were formulated for HAL, the new ASQR seems almost to be tailored for Pilatus.



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