Add to the Punch

AVM Manmohan Bahadur (retd)

The so-called ‘hollowness’ of the armed forces has drawn a lot of traction in the press. There is some truth to this but only with respect to certain items of the combat inventory; however, to say that the services do not have the narrative under control is hyperbole.

When it comes to the Indian Air Force (IAF), the talk centres around the depleting fighter fleet due to phasing out of the MiG-21/27 fleet in the coming decade. Though the Tejas Mk1 is being inducted (Tejas Mk 1A, which the IAF wants, is still at least five years away) and 36 Rafales would start flying in after three years, the numbers would still go down unless another type (Gripen/F-16) is bought.

But it needs to be remembered that the potency of the combat fleet, and that includes transport aircraft and helicopters too, depends a great deal on supporting assets like the Flight Refuelling Aircraft (FRA), Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), which actually are force multipliers in their own right. They are important cogs in any force packaging and their availability, unfortunately, has not drawn the attention that is deserved. This article discusses the state of force multipliers of the IAF.

Flight Refuelling Aircraft
The Flight Refuelling Aircraft (FRA) were inducted into the IAF in 2003 when No 78 Squadron was raised at Air Force Station Agra with IL-78MKI aircraft. The aircraft is basically an IL-76 airframe modified with an Israeli probe and drogue refuelling system. In quick time, the Squadron became operational with its six IL-78s and started training with Su-30, Mirage and Jaguar fighters. The in-flight refuelling capability of these fighter aircraft, which was lying unutilised till then, now extended the flight ranges available to the strike planners of the IAF.

The Sea Harriers (now phased out) and MiG-29Ks of the Indian Navy soon joined in and the operational crew of the two services started flying long duration sorties with multiple in-flight refuelling being an integral part of the air tasking orders. However, the numbers of the FRA proved grossly inadequate and the IAF put up its vision of having an augmented strength of 16 FRAs to cater to the fast changing security scenario.

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In a keenly contested fly-off in 2008-09 between the IL-78 and Airbus-330 MRTT (Multi Role Tanker Transport), the latter beat the former in the field of life cycle costing and was recommended for induction. This was shot down by the ministry of finance due ‘high cost.’ The request for proposal was re-floated in 2010 and in another evaluation of the same two contenders the Airbus-330 MRTT again came out winner. This, after another torturous round of negotiations, was shelved in May 2016. Once again the logic for lower life cycle cost not finding favour in comparison to the low initial purchase price of the Russian machine!

The field is once again wide open but the loss has been that of the IAF whose training has suffered due to issues of low serviceability of the IL-78s. A new player has now reportedly entered the arena, and that is Boeing with its KC-46A tanker that is based on the Boei