Only 73 out of the 336 Radar Warning Receivers (RWR) acquired at a cost of `521 crore by the Indian Air Force(IAF), could be integrated into the aircraft even after seven years of the procurement, the CAG report has said in Parliament.
Revealing this, the CAG report - 2012-13 on IAF, blamed the authorities for the inordinate delay in integrating the system designed to alert pilots to different types of hostile emitters employed by other countries. It will also enable the pilots to initiate suitable action.
The contract for 336 RWRs had been given to the BEL in September 2005 and it supplied 316 RWRs by July 2007. The work of integration of the RWRs on six types of aircraft was contracted in March 2008 by the MoD after 30-month delay to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at `36.04 crore.
“Early acceptance of deliveries, along with the 30-month delay in the integration contract, resulted in expiry of warranty of RWRs even before they were integrated into the aircraft,” the report stated.
The CAG observed that out of 73 RWRs integrated by April 2012, the performance of 69 - integrated into 43 aircraft ‘I’, 20 aircraft ‘G’, and 6 aircraft ‘J’ - was found to be unreliable. It also said that the performance status of the four RWRs installed on aircraft ‘C’ is not known.
“The IAF also decided not to integrate 54 RWRs valuing `55.72 crore on aircraft ‘A’ due to limited residual life left of the aircraft. The fitment of 65 RWRs on aircraft ‘D’, ‘E’ and ‘F’ was awaiting ratification by regional centre for military airworthiness,” it said. The ministry in its response to the CAG in April, 2012 had said that the RWR is a proven system and totally reliable.
The CAG said that it did not agree with the ministry’s reply because performance of 69 out of 73 RWRs integrated has been found unsatisfactory so far.