India has finally issued a request for proposals (RfP) for a Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) to replace the Indian Air Force’s 90 An-32RE Clines and 17 Ilyushin Il-76MD Candids.
Contenders for the programme are valued at between €8 and €10 billion and include Lockheed Martin with its C-130J-30 Hercules, which the Indian Air Force (IAF) has operated for more than a decade, and Embraer C-390 Millennium, which has a growing order book. The larger Airbus Defence and Space A400M is seen as an outsider.
The tender is for 60 tactical transport aircraft, with 12 in “flyaway status” and 48 to be produced in India. Lockheed Martin already has an Indian partner with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL), while Embraer has announced that it would partner with Mahindra Defence.
The payload requirement is apparently in the 18–30-ton range, with the C-130J offering a 19-ton payload and the C-390 26 tons. Although the C-130J is in IAF service, it is approaching the end of its production life and has a maximum speed of 400 mph and a range of 3,200 miles; the jet-powered C-390 cruises at 540 mph with a range of 3,120 miles. It has an excellent record of operating from high-altitude and semi-prepared airfields, and when configured with air-to-air refuelling equipment (AAR), can operate both as a tanker and as a receiver. Embraer also has a small foothold in the country, having supplied the IAF with three EMB-145 AEW Netras and four EMB-135BJ executive transport aircraft.
However, although there is an urgent requirement to replace the Soviet-era An-32s, the first of which were delivered in 1984, the IAF is upgrading the extant fleet, which will involve detailed structural refurbishment to repair metal fatigue and corrosion, overhauling the AI-20D engines for better performance, and replacing outdated cockpit systems with modern digital avionics and navigation aids like GPS. This aims to keep the An-32s in service until 2040, by which time the new MTA should have replaced them.
However, India’s record of ordering new aircraft for the IAF is poor. It took nine years for India to finally order the Airbus C395 to replace the IAF’s fleet of HS746s.
by David Oliver
