Indian Army Offers Cash Prize for Future Ready Combat Vehicle Design Competition

The Indian Army has invited domestic and international tank design agencies to participate in a competition to develop the Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV).

A Request for Information (RFI) issued by Indian Army issued last week says that the design will be conducted in two stages with the winning entries eligible for a cash prize.

In the first stage the agencies will submit broad concept designs, giving out the outline configuration and layout of the platform. These will be evaluated and shortlisted by the Design Selection Committee, under the aegis of Directorate General of Mechanized Forces (DGMF).

In the second stage, shortlisted participants will be asked to submit detailed designs of the FRCV platform on a common software platform. The detailed designs will be evaluated by the Design Selection Committee. The best designs will be shortlisted in order of innovative design and suitability for Indian Army. The winning designs will carry a "suitable" cash prize.

The agency/bureau whose designs are selected will require continuing to work on the project through the prototype and the Limited Series Production (LSP) stages. For this, a separate contract will be drawn. The agency/bureaus participating in this competition will mandatorily have to give an undertaking while applying for the competition.

In this process, the development of FRCV will be in three separate stages, namely Design stage, Prototype Development stage and Production stage. The Design Agency and Developing Agency (DA) can be separate entities. The best design will be chosen and given to a nominated DA for production of the prototypes. The selected prototype will be given to Production Agency for bulk production.

During the design stage, there will be a FRCV Design Competition for selecting the best design. Established tank designers will be invited by means of a global RFP (Request For Proposal), wherein the broad design philosophy for the FRCV will be given out, along with the detailed guidelines for conduct of the Competition. The participants will be asked to submit detailed designs based on the FRCV design philosophy.

The evaluation and selection of the best design will be carried out by a Design Selection Committee, which will have members selected from amongst domain experts and representatives of concerned defense agencies. The selection will be based on detailed and comprehensive Evaluation Criteria.

During the Prototype development stage, the selected design will be given to nominated DAs. These DAs will then develop the design and produce their respective prototypes.

There will be close involvement of the User (Service HQ) and the Design Agency with the DA during the development of the prototypes.

After the prototypes are successfully trial evaluated, the approved design will be given to one/ two nominated Production Agencies for bulk production.