India is modernizing its military transport aviation: the Il-76 and An-32 are being replaced by the C-17. Why didn't the choice fall on our new cars?
The Indian military has signed a $ 4.1 billion contract with Boeing for the delivery of 10 C-17A Globemaster III heavy transport aircraft in 2013-2014. In Russia, accustomed to the fact that most of the Indian Air Force's fleet is our "glade", any other people's success in this field is rather painful. Such, for example, as the triumph of the Europeans, whose medium fighters reached the final of the Indian tender. But what could we offer our long-time partners in military-technical cooperation?
Americans at the entrance …
Reports that Delhi plans to purchase five C-17s overseas for $ 1.7 billion appeared in the fall of 2009. A year later, during President Obama's visit to India, a preliminary agreement was signed to supply not five, but ten Globemasters.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed. This, firstly, clearly indicated a tense bargaining, and secondly, that the original price set by the Americans was hardly perceived by the parties as final. This assumption was confirmed in April this year, when Boeing's top managers publicly denied the figure of $ 5.8 billion that appeared in the press. And as guesses figured the range from 4 to 7 billion.
Finally, by June, everything was resolved. The Indians firmly insisted on their own: the purchase of the S-17 will cost them 4.1 billion dollars. At the same time, under standard offset conditions, Delhi has not moved an inch: 30 percent of the contract volume must be reinvested by Boeing in the Indian industry. Along the way, the Indian side unequivocally pointed out the extreme need for a stand for high-altitude tests of aircraft engines and a wind tunnel capable of operating at supersonic modes. By the way, the voices sounding rather confident that this dozen aircraft will not be the last batch of C-17s and their total number in the Indian Air Force will reach 16-18 aircraft.
Delhi is consistently "seating" players who want to taste the pie of the Indian arms market. For example, the same Americans, along with the Russians, were rather harshly expelled from the competition for a medium fighter. However, as we can see, this did not prevent RSK MiG from continuing work related to the supply of deck-mounted MiG-29Ks and the modernization of land-based 29s into the MiG-29UPG version.
Boeing, after the failure of the Super Hornet, acquired a contract for the Globemasters. Let's not forget that the corporation is transferring P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft to India (by 2013, Delhi will receive 12 Poseidons).
… And the Russians - on the way out?
Basically, the Indian military transport aviation (246 aircraft) uses Soviet-made aircraft (105 - An-32, 24 - Il-76). They completely cover the niche of large "flying trucks". But in connection with their gradual withdrawal from the Air Force, replacement was required.
The lighter An-32, once developed specifically for India and supplied to it in 1984-1991, are now undergoing modernization in Ukraine. Just recently, the Indian Air Force returned the first five aircraft - already in the An-32RE version. Replacement of navigation equipment and parts of the avionics will allow the upgraded machines to serve in Indian aviation for some more time. In the future, according to the Indian military, some of them will be written off in favor of all the same "Globemasters".
A natural question arises: why is the preference given to the Americans, and not to us? There are many reasons for this.
To begin with, it should be noted that the Soviet transport aircraft available in the Indian Air Force are "outgoing". To a greater extent, this concerns the Il-76, since at the moment these machines are not being built either in Russia or in the former republics of the USSR: the Tashkent Aviation Production Association named after Chkalov, calling things by their proper names, was "dismantled" in favor of the Russian plant in Ulyanovsk. It is planned to put new Il-476 aircraft into production there, but this is still too far away.
The same applies to the An-32. It was originally planned to replace it with the so-called MTA - again, a version of the Il-214 medium transport project developed specifically for India. But the years go by, and the project is still there. The Il-476, in contrast to it, is already at least being prepared for release.
It is customary to say that Indians buy a plane several times more expensive than the usual Il-76. And formally, this is really so: now one such transporter (without additional services and supplies) can be carefully estimated at fifty million dollars based on the results of the Jordanian contract for the Il-76MF-EI. Taking into account the integration of a large number of Western avionics and avionics from various manufacturers (the traditional requirement of the Indians) - up to 70-75 million.
But here several subtleties immediately arise. Firstly, India buys an aircraft with an almost 1.5-fold overweight in carrying capacity. Secondly, a car with much more modern equipment was ordered, both in terms of avionics and other pilot's "high-tech", and in a purely constructive version of the "transformer" salon, which allows you to quickly and efficiently work with different types of cargo. Thirdly, the Il-476 will grow quite strongly in price when it leaves the stocks, and the tempting spread between our and the American technical and commercial proposals will decrease.
And, finally, the main thing. For big or small money, but now there is essentially nothing to order from Russia. Previously, the Il-76 was produced in Tashkent, and for the time being, there were plans for the integration of the Chkalov APO into the United Aircraft Corporation. But the history of the already mentioned Jordanian contract, which was nearly disrupted by both high production parties, nodding at each other, against the background of the clearly manifested unwillingness of the Uzbek authorities to hand the plant over to Russian managers, ended the fate of this enterprise. According to a number of data, now they intend to equip several workshops for screwdriver assembly of cars.
The new Ulyanovsk Il-476 is carefully planned for production in 2012, and so far it has not been considered by Delhi as an alternative when updating its air transport fleet. But it is quite possible that the plane will still compete for a place in the Indian military transport aviation. There is reason for hope. This refers to the traditional Indian habit of “diversifying” and the very good practice of using the “older brothers” of the Il-76, accumulated by Indian pilots. However, this will require making the car at least as good in operation as the Globemaster, by the time of the hypothetical deliveries Delhi will have something to compare with. And the ease of operation and control "in comparison with the IL-76" Indians set as one of the conditions when choosing the S-17.
