India Selects Airbus A330 MRTT in Aerial Tanker Competition

IL-78MK with SU-30MKIs
(click to expand)

By the early 2000s, India’s Air Force was expressing interest in buying modern aerial tankers, AWACS radar planes, maritime patrol aircraft, and other long-range, high-value aircraft. Things always take a longer time than they should in India, but the IAF is moving ahead on all fronts. IL-76TD based A-50EI Phalcon AWACS radar aircraft are arriving from Israel, as are has ordered Lockheed Martin’s C-130J-30 Hercules transports for its special forces and Boeing’s 737-derived P-8i Neptune for maritime patrol. A project is underway to develop a mid-size AWACS aircraft, and a competition will select a similar-sized maritime patrol plane to complement the new P-8is.

Aerial tankers enhance the capability of nearly every aircraft in this set, along with India’s fighter fleet. The IAF already operates Russian IL-76 transports, and 6 or 7 related IL-78MK “Midas” aerial tankers, but that won’t be enough. As the Indian Air Force inducts new high-value aircraft, the need for aerial refueling tankers grows along with them. In response, the IAF plans to buy another 6 aerial tankers. In order to add to its fleet, however, the IAF must first overcome India’s bureaucracy.

Rapid Fire Jan. 11, 2013: Pentagon Preempts Budget Squeeze

• Soon-departing US SecDef Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dempsey held a press conference (transcript, video) mostly focused on budget issues:

“The continuing resolution (CR) expires on March 27th. If Congress fails to pass the appropriations bill for FY 13 and simply extends the CR through the year, our overall operating accounts would decrease by about 5% below the proposed budget presented by the president for our 2013 budget. That amount roughly comes to about $11 billion that would come out of Operations and Maintenance (O&M).”

• As colliding deadlines loom ever closer and Congress has been stuck in a holding pattern, Panetta is directing the department to “curtail facility maintenance for non-mission-critical activities, freezing civilian hiring, delaying certain contract awards.” Dempsey was somewhat confused about how much sequestration would impact the remaining part of FY13 (about $43B-$45B according to Comptroller Dale and CSBA, not $52B) but nonetheless took a comment from Bloomberg’s Capaccio in stride: “Actually you’re not correcting me, because I’m right.” (Dempsey’s point on the burn rate was right but his number was incorrect.)