|
Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal P V Naik
told India Strategic in an interview
that the exhaustive report covered all the aircraft,
and that once the selection has been made, he
expected the chosen MRCA to be in service within
three years, say by 2014.
ACM Naik also disclosed that after the M-MRCA
trials, IAF had also completed field trials of
Utility helicopters and Combat helicopters in
India. The trials of the Heavy Lift helicopters
were meanwhile in the final phase.
The next four years are crucial but by 2014,
IAF would have all the new aircraft and helicopters
well in place as part of its transformation process
now underway, he said adding that each of the
new system is now being acquired along with its
training simulators.
The full report of the interview will be published
in India Strategic's August issue,
coming mid-month.
As for the M-MRCA selection process, the Air
Chief apparently gave no indication as to how
each of the six aircraft in the fray performed
during the trials. He only observed that the IAF
had completed its assignment, and submitted the
report to the Ministry of Defence July-end, and
on time as promised.
The Russian Mig 35 (initially designated Mig
29M2), Europe’s Eurofighter Typhoon, Swedish
Gripen, French Rafale, and the US Boeing F/A 18
E/F Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin’s F
16IN Super Viper are in the fray. The RfP was
for 126 aircraft with an option for 63 more.
As for the combat helicopters, ACM Naik said
that both the Russian Mi 28 and US Boeing Apache
AH 64D had been tested in India. Some weapon trials
are due to be conducted in the country of origin.
IAF had issued an RfP for 22 combat helicopters
to replace its ageing Soviet vintage Mi 35s.
Trials of Boeing’s Chinook CH 47F Heavy
Lift helicopters had also been completed in the
Heavy Lift category while that of Russian Mi 26
were likely to be held this month (August) within
India. IAF needs 15 Heavy Lift helicopters to
replace and augment its ageing fleet of half a
dozen obsolete Mi 26s acquired in the mid-1980s.
Trials of the utility helicopters, needed both
for the IAF and Army, are also over. Eurocopter
Fennec 555 and Russia’s Kamov 226 are the
two contenders. The two Services have tendered
for a combined order for 197 of these helicopters.
All aircraft and helicopters are required to
operate in the varied hot, humid, desert and high
altitude environment of India, particularly to
support the deployments in the Himalayan regions.
IAF wants to minimize its inventory of its flying
machines to reduce their maintenance costs on
the one hand and to increase their operational
availability on the other.
Air Chief Marshal Naik said that appropriate
infrastructure and communication nodes were also
being built as part of the transformation process
now under way.
Notably, IAF aims to have 45 combat squadrons
– approximately 800 aircraft – by 2022.
Of these, it is already set to acquire more than
270 Su 30 MKI air dominance aircraft from Russia.
These include a set of 42 aircraft being ordered
through India’s state-run aeronautics giant
HAL, which is making this Russian aircraft already
under licence and Transfer of Technology (ToT).
|
