URGENTLY NEEDED: AIRBUS A330 MRTT

In 2006, the IAF issued a request for proposal (RFP) for six new FRA and the Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT), based on the A330 airliner, was selected. But the RFP was scrapped in 2009 because the Ministry of Finance had reservations about “the competitiveness of the bids and the reasonableness of the price”. Another RFP was floated in 2010 and this time both the A330 MRTT and the II-78MKI cleared comprehensive field trials. Following the subsequent commercial evaluation, the A330 MRTT again emerged as the preferred tanker in 2013. However, commercial negotiations over the estimated $2 billion deal have dragged on with no end in sight.

It would certainly be preferable for the IAF to acquire the same type of tanker it already operates, the II-78MKI, and save on investment in fresh maintenance facilities, especially since this aircraft costs considerably less than the A330 MRTT. However, when the lifecycle cost is factored in, the A330 MRTT wins hands down.

The A330 MRTT is a modern product of French technology and a generation ahead of the II-78MKI. Thanks to its widebody fuselage, it has a remarkable payload capacity of up to 45 tonnes or 300 fullyequipped troops or 130 stretchers in the medevac role. It carries 111 tonnes of fuel in its wings, adequate for its own needs, as well as to refuel up to eight combat aircraft. Its advanced Aerial Refuelling Boom System (ARBS) allows the fastest transfer of fuel at the rate of 4,600 litres per minute to the receiver aircraft. The tanker also offers other refuelling options like under-wing hose-and-drogue refuelling pods and/or a fuselage refuelling unit, thus catering to a variety of receiver aircraft.