India has selected the  European Airbus 330-200 MRTT over the  Russian Ilyushin-78 mid-air refuelling  aircraft in an Rs 8,500-crore contract.

Defence ministry sources on Thursday said the European Aeronautics Defence and Space Company (EADS) “is now being called for the final commercial negotiations” for acquisition of six Airbus-330 MRTT tankers.

“The actual contract will be inked in the 2013-14 financial year since commercial negotiations with EADS will take some time. Moreover, there has been a massive cut (Rs 10,000 crore) in the defence capital budget for the ongoing fiscal,” said a source.

Both the four-engine IL-78 and the two-engine Airbus-330 had passed the extensive field evaluation trials conducted by IAF but the latter emerged the cheaper option in the subsequent commercial evaluation. “Though the two commercial bids were opened earlier, the final costing last week put the Airbus-330 as the L-1 (lowest bidder) on account of life-cycle costs,” said a source.
IAF, which already operates six IL-78s since 2003-04, is looking to induct the six new tankers or “force-multipliers” from 2017 onwards to further enhance its “strategic reach” capabilities. Only a handful of countries operate such tankers, which with their “booms” can refuel fighters and other aircraft in mid-air to virtually double their radius of operations. IAF’s Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, which have a cruising speed range of 3,200-km, for instance, can strike high-value targets deep inside China with in-flight refuelling.

Source: Indian News
Photo: Airbus