Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne told reporters that the aircraft would be able to operate from the country’s northern-most Advanced Landing Ground at Daulat Beg Oldie close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.
The Acceptance Of Necessity (AON) was cleared by the Defense Acquisitions Council (DAC) in February, 2012 and at the time, the order was estimated to be worth around USD 1 billion.
The IAF chief, ACM NAK Browne placed on record his ‘appreciation to the US government, the US Air Force and the Boeing team for the timely delivery of the aircraft that makes the IAF the world’s second-largest operator of the C-17 after the US’.
Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne will take delivery of the second Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, scheduled to be delivered to the IAF on 22 Jul 2013 in a ceremony at Boeing’s Long Beach final assembly facility.
The new ACNS (Air Materiel), Rear Admiral Srinivas Kanugo, will have three sub-directorates looking at air logistics, plans/procurement and perspectives and systems engineering under him, as well as responsibility for air technical manpower management.
Wing Commander Alok Kumar Thakur was convicted by court martial for allegedly accepting bribes from the representative of French aircraft manufacturer Dassault in a reported sting during the Bangalore Air Show in 2011.
The aircraft took off from the company’s manufacturing plant at Long Beach, California on June 11 and made several stops, including one at Barcelona, before it arrived in India.
These aircraft are part of a batch of 57 Hawks ordered jointly by the Indian Navy and Indian Air Force (IAF) for around 700 million pounds, the first 17 of which will go to the navy.
StratPost was invited to the annual Airbus Military Trade Media Briefing in Spain last week and, as it turned out, ended up getting a ride on the A400M. Read about the experience and check out all the pictures.
This first aircraft is expected to be handed over to the IAF this summer and Boeing says it’s ‘on track to deliver four more C-17s to the IAF this year and five in 2014’.
StratPost was invited to visited Airbus Military facilities at Getafe in Spain last week to get a sense of the aircraft acquisition under consideration by the IAF, after the A-330 MRTT was announced as the preferred bid in the refueler competition. Here’s a look at what goes into the aircraft.
The defense ministry has issued a Letter of Request to the US Government for the procurement of 145 pieces of M777 light howitzers, manufactured by BAE Systems.
Boeing is to build Beddown Infrastructure Facilities for the C-17 aircraft ordered by the Indian Air Force (IAF) at Hindon Air Force Station.
Although the case for the acquisition of the two single-engine trainers is still at a preliminary stage, the IAF is ‘desirous’ of getting their ‘numbers up from 49 to 51’ again and is planning to make a pitch for the aircraft to the Ministry of Defense.
The IAF evaluation of the six competing aircraft for the MMRCA contest took into account the issue of life-cycle cost, which could be loosely understood to mean cost of ownership over the period of operation of the aircraft. This was because it was felt that the true cost of owning a fleet of aircraft was not reflected in the purchase price alone.
