One of my favourite photographs of recent times from 2016. The IAF's entire fleet of C-17s at Leh after inducting elements of the Indian Army's mechanised and armoured formations. Jointmanship par excellence! pic.twitter.com/RmCypvhPqc
— Arjun Subramaniam (@rhinohistorian) August 8, 2020
A great photo that’s been doing the rounds recently of a T-72 rolling into a Skylords squadron C-17. Not clear if it’s from the current standoff though. Could be older. pic.twitter.com/g37VtzAJ5j
— Livefist (@livefist) August 9, 2020
Indian Air Force C-17s are flying to Leh more than ever before amidst the standoff in eastern Ladakh. Here's an undated video of how comfortable IAF Skylords squadron C-17s are operating up in the Himalayas -- this takeoff from 11,562 feet. More @ https://t.co/FG9OTf3kgu pic.twitter.com/K68TmtySlU
— Livefist (@livefist) August 9, 2020
Very expensive prospect. Assuming we are talking about restarting the production in the US. Restarting a production line will cost billions, which would be fine if we were to order say 50-60 planes at once. But we don't do that. We will negotiate for months and order 2 planes, negotiate again and order 3 more and so on.
Dornier you mean ? Unlikely that will happen. US companies don't like doing licensing. What can happen is that Boeing will set up the production line in India. That would be a cheaper option. The original line in the US has been converted to produce something else. Re-converting that is problematic idea.
Yes we do. They still have some life left in them though. If we were smarter we would've ordered before hand to stock up the numbers and de-commission them in time. But we are hardly smart, so we will wait for the Il-76 to nearly come to the end of its service life and then call in a tender. The tender will be delayed, then a competition will happen, one will be chosen, cost negotiations will begin and end then we will buy some measly amount of aircrafts and call it a day.
No, you didn't miss anything. Its sad that an aircraft which capable of lifting a T90 to ladakh was not purchased in numbers. A 30-40 number would have been an ideal choice for IAF.
Or we could make a deal with Antonov or Embraer to do a JV and hold the ip of the transport aircraft. And produce it in India. KC390 or a Antonov design transport aircraft. The Japanese will never make a deal with us..
Well the production is closed it would be better to use the design knowledge and produce a bigger aircraft by investing in a heavy transport aircraft. Embraer has decent experience regarding dev of heavy lifters..
I think Antonov can come in handy, no one in the world have Antonov's experience in the field of heavy lifters. If we managed to make a heavy lifter like c17, that platform can be used for our future awacs ( after the initial 330 based awacs), refueller, transporter, ew air craft etc.
I think we are the largest c17 operator after USA. USA wont sell it from its inventory and others have sufficient numbers for us to seek.
Antonov is the right company to go for. We could very well use an American engine now for powering it. At the same time work for an in-house engine development. Hal-antonov JV with small sub-contractors could be a good competitor.
And there is no aircraft available in the market to replace il76 after 15 yeras, if we didn't act now. 15 years is a pretty good time frame to design &develop a new lifter.
This right here is what I was saying. Why not make some tie ups now ? Lets say with Embraer or Dassault ? Both of them have the capability yet none have any product in this space now.
What after that ? Even if the 76 continue their numbers wont increase. Either way we will have to buy something completely new. Why not try to make something ? We will try only when the need is imminent, but not otherwise.
