Lockhee asks IAF to pay for after-sales service
As Indian Air Force gets ready to induct the first of its C-130J transport aircraft early next year, the US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has assured India of full serviceability at all times - but at a price.
The offer from the American company may prove to be a boon to IAF which has been having massive serviceability problems with its Russian supplied short and medium haul transport aircraft which are forced to be grounded due to shortage of spares.
With IAF now poised to change its transport inventory from Russia to apparently US, the Lockheed Martin is offering 80 per cent serviceability for its C-130J transport aircraft enabling it to be operational at all times.
The military aircraft manufacturer has assured the IAF that it will ensure their six C-130J transport fleet is fit and ready for operations when the IAF requires it badly.
For that, the firm has offered to maintain a 80 per cent serviceability of the four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft, bought by India in 2007 at a cost of USD 1 billion for its Special Forces operations.
After decades of flying Russian aircraft, India recently signed major contracts with the US firm for supply of these aircraft for special operations. The company is hoping that New Delhi would increase its orders to make Hercules as the main stay of the IAF transport fleet replacing the ageing Russian AN-32 aircraft.
The first of the six C-130J currently under production at the Lockheed Martin's facility in Marietta near here is scheduled for delivery by February 2011 and these would be based at IAF's Hindon air base just outside the capital New Delhi.
"We have offered India a sustainment package for the six C-130Js on the basis of performance of the fleet itself. We have said that the IAF pay us for the after sales support of spares and maintenance on the basis of an assured 80 per cent serviceability of the fleet. If the performance is lesser than what is assured, a penalty can be imposed," Lockheed Martin's Director C-130J (India) Abhay Paranjape said.
The IAF's two IL-76 squadrons and five AN-32 squadrons have been besieged with poor serviceability record of less than 50 per cent, meaning the fleet was available to the Air Force for less than half their intended utilisation and a huge shortfall in their assigned tasks and performance, mainly due to non-availability of spares and inadequate maintenance.
In fact, India's government auditors have slammed the IAF in their 2007 report, observing that against a 75 per cent serviceability level when the AN-32 was procured in 1985, the actual rate ranged between 47 per cent and 51 per cent.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India also noted that the number of aircraft on ground was also high, between 24 per cent to 33 per cent, indicating that the required number of aircraft were not in ready-to-fly condition.
"High levels of un-serviceability indicated that repair and maintenance capabilities at wings and repair depots were inadequate," the CAG report had said, adding that actual flying tasks fell significantly short of the task prescribed by the government, ranging between 49 and 59 per cent.
These problems, caused mainly due to inadequate spares from Russian manufacturers, had led India to sign an after-sales agreement with Moscow last year under which a commitment was sought on supplies and maintenance of the Russian-origin equipment with Indian armed forces.
In the case of C-130Js though, Lockheed Martin has given a commitment in their 2007 contract with India to provide a three-year after-sales support. But since the aircraft would be with India for at least 40 to 50 years, the US company was looking at a long-term arrangement for sustaining the aircraft for its entire life time.
"After the first three years of product and service support, we want to partner India on a long-term basis to sustain the C-130Js for its entire lifetime. If not the entire lifespan, at least for the next 20 years," Paranjape said.
Lockheed Martin's Deputy Vice President Business Development-Global Sustainment Thomas Wetherall noted that the onus of the fleet's performance in the first three years after delivery was on the company itself.
"In the first three years, we will test the sustainment requirement of the IAF's C-130J fleet to prepare a long-term after-sales support package," Wetherall told a group of visiting Indian journalists.
The package being worked out would be on a turn-key basis, with the fuel and crew from the IAF and the rest of the sustainment commitments from Lockheed Martin.
"We are encouraging the IAF to take up sustainment packages we have worked with the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia with whom we have a over 20-year commitment," he said
