Eurocopter CEO Lutz Bertling says it is time for India's competition for 197 reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters (RSH) to be concluded.
"It is time for this competition to end," he says. "The army needs this helicopter for their missions."
Bertling was speaking to journalists at a media roundtable on the sidelines of India's Defexpo 2012.
© Eurocopter
The RSH competition is between Eurocopter's AS550 C3 Fennec and Russia's Kamov KA-226T for 197 helicopters. The evaluation of flight trials report for the competition was submitted in 2011, but India's ministry of defence has yet to open commercial offers for the programme.
The Fennec was selected as the winner of a similar tender in 2007, but this tender was cancelled, with a re-tender issued in 2008. The winner will replace the army's obsolescent Cheetah and Cheetak helicopters.
Frustrated by the apparent delays in concluding the competition, Eurocopter sent a letter to the ministry of defence in February enquiring about the competition's status.
Bertling says Eurocopter has yet to receive a response to the letter and that Eurocopter's current offer expires on 18 June.
Source: Flight International