Find out exactly what Lockheed Martin is offering for the F-16 Block 70 to India, the only F-16 concept to feature both drogue as well as receptacle refueling, plus Auto GCAS, besides other Indian-spec requirements.
An LCA ride might have turned into something else entirely, had the original request for a demonstration flight been acceded by the Indian Air Force.
Boeing and Airbus will compete in a new IAF tender for tanker aircraft being conducted for the 3rd time – this time without a Russian bid. Airbus had won both the earlier tenders that were later withdrawn.
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.
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’.
Although the design will be based on the Block 50 model, it will incorporate newer features that have, so far, only been included in the Block 60 Desert Falcons flown by the UAE Air Force and were part of the F-16IN Super Viper for the Indian Air Force tender for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft.
Airbus has pitched the aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) competition for six mid-air refueling aircraft, in which it is likely to be competing with the Russian IL-78.
Airbus will be submitting a bid in the tender for the purchase of six mid-air-refueling aircraft by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The United States Air Force F-22 Raptor’s planned evolution includes an auto recovery system, called the Auto Ground Collision Avoidance System). This system allows the aircraft to recover to level flight, automatically, if the pilot is momentarily incapacitated.
The amount of USD 4.1 billion ‘more closely represents the case value in its current state and that figure only includes the options India is actually considering’, according to a US Government source.
The Indian Air Force contest for mid-air refueling tanker aircraft will depend on how a United States Air Force competition for a massive order for 179 tankers plays out towards the end of the year.
Once operational, the USAF SBSS satellite will be its ‘only space-based sensor capable of detecting and monitoring debris, satellites and other space objects without the disruptions from weather, atmosphere or time of day that limit ground-based observations’.
If the Indian Air Force has to choose, should it assume a single-engine aircraft to be cheaper or a twin-engine aircraft to be more reliable, to decide their choice for the 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft contest?
The Indian Air Force (IAF) began the trials of the C-17 strategic lift aircraft on Monday. The aircraft will be required to land in high altitude airfields, switch off and take off again. Load carrying capability and expeditionary landing and take off ability is also likely to be examined hands-on by IAF pilots.
