the defence ministry (MoD)

operational necessity for IAF

NEW DELHI: India is now planning “a direct strategic purchase” of six flight refuelling aircraft (FRA) or tankers to enhance the reach of its fighter jets, bombers and surveillance aircraft after the bid to acquire them through global tenders failed twice over the last decade.Consequently,has scrapped the proposed Rs 9,000 crore contract for acquisition of six Airbus-330 MRTT (multi-role tanker transport) aircraft, which was hanging fire for several years due to high costs as well as old CBI cases and change in the manufacturer’s name from EADS Cassidian to Airbus Group.“Airbus was told towards end-June that the RFP (request for proposal or tender), under which the A-330 MRTT was selected as L-1 (lowest bidder), has been withdrawn. A decision will now be taken for direct acquisition of FRA, a critical,” said a top MoD source.Interestingly, the NDA government cited IAF 's "critical operational necessity" as well as the need to cut time and costs to go in for the direct acquisition of 36 Rafale fighters in a government-to-government deal announced during the Modi-Hollande summit in Paris in April last year.Simultaneously, it had scrapped the original $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to acquire 126 Rafale jets, the commercial negotiations for which were deadlocked after the French fighter’s selection over Eurofighter Typhoon, American F/A-18 and F-16, Swedish Gripen and Russian MiG-35.It was in 2006 that IAF had first asked for acquisition of six more tankers after inducting six Ilyushin-78 mid-air refuelling aircraft in 2003-2004. While the IL-78s are based at Agra to support operations against Pakistan, the six new tankers were meant for Panagarh (West Bengal) to take care of China.As was earlier reported by TOI, the two-engine A-330 MRTT was twice selected over the four-engine Russian IL-78 in technical and commercial evaluation over the last decade. But there were “concerns” over the life cycle cost (LCC) methodology used in selecting A-330 MRTT over the IL-78. The LCC basically identifies “total cost of ownership” of an aircraft or other equipment through its entire operational life of 25-30 years.“With oil prices drastically dropping, Russia was contesting the LCC model used to select A-330 MRTT over the IL-78 (guzzles more fuel with four engines but cheaper off-the-shelf). There were finance ministry’s objections and other problems,” said a source.