New Delhi, Oct 29: US Boeing's Chinook CH 47F helicopter is set to win the Indian Air Force's helicopter tender, defeating the Russian Mi-26 in the open international tender by a decent margin.
The tender was opened recently in the presence of representatives of both the companies, and according to reliable sources, the quote by the US company was "surprisingly much lower" in both the initial and lifecycle costs.
Russia - and the erstwhile Soviet Union - has been the biggest supplier of aircraft and defence equipment to India, but all these so far have been acquired on the basis of government-to-government agreements.
With the loss of the heavy-lift tender, Russia has lost both the competitive tenders in India in which it participated, the other being that of combat helicopters. In that, Russia withdrew its Mi-28, and Boeing's Apache AH 64D won on both technical and financial merit.
