Johannesburg | Wednesday
DEPARTMENT of Defence procurement agency Armscor said on Tuesday that air defence missile manufacturers had until December 3 to revise their proposals to sell the South African army a battery of the weapons because the original response was unsatisfactory.
The original cut-off date for tenders was April 23 but was pushed back to May 28 after Armscor received two requests for an extension.
”Armscor confirms that none of the tenders received on 28 May 2001 comply with the minimum project critical (mandatory) requirements as provided for in the original RFP (request for proposal),” Armscor representative Bertus Cilliers said.
Some of the reasons cited were the absence of pricing alternatives, missing technical appendices and incomplete proposals.
The SA National Defence Force had a long-standing but urgent requirement for the shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles and intended to buy an undisclosed number from an international manufacturer.
They are to replace similar missiles of former Warsaw Pact manufacture which were withdrawn and destroyed some years ago after being declared unsafe.
Defence acquisition officials believe this has left South African peacekeepers and troops vulnerable to attack by helicopters and aircraft.
The purchase that would follow the tender was not part of the controversial multi-billion rand defence acquisition programme and would be funded out of the army’s capital budget as the ground-based air defence system programme.
More missiles would be purchased later as well as appropriate command-and-control (C2) and early warning (EW) equipment. Cilliers said three companies had answered the tender but could not identify them as they were expected to resubmit their proposals.
Only a limited number of companies none South African manufacture such missiles.
Cilliers also said it was too early to talk costs as it would largely be determined by the information in the proposals. The contract would likely be worth tens of millions of rands.
Training missiles, simulators and other support equipment would also have to be acquired. – Sapa