India Floats a New Bid for Six New Tankers

[Major Shaitan Singh]

The Indian Air Force is seeking to buy six new flying tankers to augment its existing aerial refueling capability, based on Russian built IL-86 flying tankers. The IAF currently operates 6 Ilyushin IL-78MKI. These planes are customized variants of the Il-78ME built in Uzbekistan, designed specifically for the Indian Air Force. They are fitted with a aerial refueling system designed by IAI Bedek, capable of refueling 6-8 Su-30MKIs on each sortie.

In September 2009, the Indian Finance Ministry had rejected the Indian Air Force/MoD selection of the A330 MRTT as too costly. Reports at the time suggested the final price of the A330 MRTT package for six aircraft was Rs 8,000-crore (around $1.8-billion), compared with Rs 5,000-crore ($1.12-billion) paid for the IL-78M package. However, as existing IL-78MKI have experienced serviceability issues the IAF opted to cancel the bid, raising its requirement for the new tender which is expected to cost around 9,000-crore (US$2 billion).

Israel proposed to equip India with used 767 planes, modified into military flying tankers, however, since the Indian Air Force insists on buying new aircraft, the Israeli proposal was shelved. For this new program India is approaced by three potential bidders – Boeing, EADS and Russian state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport.

Boeing is offering the 767 KC-X aerial refueling tanker. At present, Boeing’s production line is dependent on winning the US Air Force KC-X program next month. If Boeing fails, the status of the KC-767 is unclear, as the company has no further orders for this type, beyond the current deliveries to Italy and Japan.

EADS is offering the A-330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport currently being delivered to Australia and competing head-to-head with Boeing on the U.S. program.

As for Rosoboronexport, the company is offering a modified militarized version of the IL-86 – a commercial passenger plane. If won, this will be the first time the IL-86 is modified into aerial refueling platform.

The Russian offer likely to be the least costly, has also gained another advantage, since it is likely to integrate the Israeli system that already has proven to work with all Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contenders during recent flight testing carried out last summer in India. Boeing and EADS are likely to offer their own refueling systems, already integrated into their respective platforms.

 

[typhoon77]

Doesn't India have some ridiculous tender policy where the lowest bidder wins? In most cases the best choice isn't the cheapest one. The Russian IL-86 will obviously be cheaper but it won't be the refueler the IAF wants. They should just by the Airbus A330 they are newer and they can double as transports if need be.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Doesn't India have some ridiculous tender policy where the lowest bidder wins? In most cases the best choice isn't the cheapest one. The Russian IL-86 will obviously be cheaper but it won't be the refueler the IAF wants. They should just by the Airbus A330 they are newer and they can double as transports if need be.

Would rather tend to disagree with you on some points.
While the cheapest is not necessarily the best, the final choice has to be a trade-off between cost (both acquisition and operating) and operational features. Even more so for non-lethal acquisitions.
Case in point could be: Hummer v/s Mahindra Jeeps for IA.

Double Role MRTTs are not an imperative for the IAF any more. With the need to rapidly and effectively deploy and sustain Air-Assets in different theatres of operation; the IAF, in fact needs more purpose built AAR aircraft. The Air-lift capabilities will be handled well by the existing IL-76s, AN-32s augmented by the C-17s and C-130s. In a cinch, the very large (and growing) civil aircraft fleet can also be requisitioned.

The final buzz-word is 'cost-effectiveness', viz. ' more bang for the buck'.

 

[sancho]

Would rather tend to disagree with you on some points.
While the cheapest is not necessarily the best, the final choice has to be a trade-off between cost (both acquisition and operating) and operational features. Even more so for non-lethal acquisitions.
Case in point could be: Hummer v/s Mahindra Jeeps for IA.

Double Role MRTTs are not an imperative for the IAF any more. With the need to rapidly and effectively deploy and sustain Air-Assets in different theatres of operation; the IAF, in fact needs more purpose built AAR aircraft. The Air-lift capabilities will be handled well by the existing IL-76s, AN-32s augmented by the C-17s and C-130s. In a cinch, the very large (and growing) civil aircraft fleet can also be requisitioned.

The final buzz-word is 'cost-effectiveness', viz. ' more bang for the buck'.

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense, because the transport role of the A330 and the KC 767 are additional advantages, besides the tanker role. You can't see it seperate, but as an additional capability of the aircraft. While an IL 78 can be used only in the tanker role, the western counterparts can be used for the transport role at the same time. An A330 carries 45t of cargo, while carrying more fuel than the IL 78, so correctly it means, the cost for 1 x A330 MRTT = the costs for 1 x IL 76 + 1 x IL 78! So when IAF can save money and crews with adding 1 aircraft, that can do the job of 2, of course it has to be imperative for them.

Moreover the A330 MRTT offers obviously more bang for bucks:

- it carries more fuel in the wing and fuselage tanks, than the IL 78 even with the additional fuel tanks in the cargo hold.
- it needs only a 3 man crew, while the IL 78 needs twice as much
- it is a twin engine aircraft, while the IL 78 has 4
- the fact that it is based on an comercial aircraft, that is sold in high numbers, makes spareparts cheaper, compared to parts of military aircrafts
- maintenance of western aircrafts are always cheaper, than of Russian counterparts

Now add the additional advantages also:

- carrying up to 45t cargo
- or up to 300 troops
- or beeing used as a MEDIVAC
- boom refuelling system, that most likely is needed to refuel P8I and C17s

And that all for just $680 millions more, which will be returned easily!
MoD made simply a bad planing of the competition with a budget that was too low and that's why FM rejected it.



Regarding the article, if the Russians will offer a comercial aircraft, it will be the IL 96, because the 86 is AFAIK not in production anymore. I hoped for that too, because of similar transport, tanker advantages and possibly common engines with MRTA, but as far as I could find out, the Russians are not interested in such a version and want to order a tanker version of the bigger IL 476.

 

[GORKHALI]

Doesn't India have some ridiculous tender policy where the lowest bidder wins? In most cases the best choice isn't the cheapest one. The Russian IL-86 will obviously be cheaper but it won't be the refueler the IAF wants. They should just by the Airbus A330 they are newer and they can double as transports if need be.

becoz RUSSIAN PAY HIGHER BRIBE to Our pan parag babus than european and usa