Airbus bags multi-crore deal to supply six refuelling aircraft to IAF

[Abingdonboy]

Am I the only one who thinks this deal has been completed,for India, relatively quickly? I understand that because the trails and such were already done in the 1st failed tanker evaluation there was less work to do but given all the life-cycle cost analysis and the fact that both sides have no doubt submitted revised bids from cancellation of old tender to re-issuing of the revised tender to this news is,what, >18 months? Not bad-for India!

Indian military is speedy with these big procurements (in fact such deals of <$5BN USD aren't even considered big to the Indian military these days!).

 

[Abingdonboy]

@sancho do you think the IAF will order their A330 MRTTs with the UARRSI so that the MRTTs can be tanked themselves by other ARBS (boom) equipped IAF MRTTs?

 

[dbc]

It is for the IAF to decide how to use their a/c. They are a proffesional force and I don't doubt their ability to operate their a/c safely and to the best of their ability.

Its is not about professionalism but about local and international regulations. In Indian airspace I'm not sure it is the IAF that gets to decide it is likely a aviation regulation authority the Indian equivalent of the US FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION - FAA, in US airspace the FAA sets the rules and the responsibility for the flight passes from ATC to MARSA during formation flying and midair refueling operations.

 

[sancho]

@sancho do you think the IAF will order their A330 MRTTs with the UARRSI so that the MRTTs can be tanked themselves by other ARBS (boom) equipped IAF MRTTs?

As I said, the prime reason for the boom system will be to refuell P8Is and if neccessary C17s, but it could be used to refuell A330s as well of course, although I don't see a reason for it.

 

[IND151]