C-17 Globemaster III (IAF)

Gentlemen,

India expects to get the first lot of 10 C-17's by 2014, and another 14 hopefully in the next two years. So with a span of 4 years, we will have 24 C-17's. At the same time we will have another 18 IL-76's. That is a formidable lift capability increase of nearly 3-4 times of the current IAF capacity in 4 years. This is a true answer to China, I expect the IL-76's to retire from 2020 towards 2025, I am certain IAF will order at the minimum another 24 C-17's or more. We have just Tripled or Quadrupled our strategic lift capacity bringing the total number of C-17's in the Indian inventory to about 46, I just hope India orders whatever it has to, before the C-17 line closes, not be in the same predicament as the earlier MMRCA situation with regard to Mirage 2000 line

Congrats India Congrats IAF!

Glory to Bharat !

Did I miss something about C-17 orders? I though it was 10+6 on option.

IL-76's can serve even longer. They will go under upgrade after sometime once replacements are active.

Yes armand, IAF is looking for 8 more so total coming to 10+6+8=24

Apart from addition of C 17's and the C 130's, and parallel up gradation of AN 32's along with possible extension for IL 76's. And coming MRTA. The transport fleet is taken care of. Now is the time to concentrate on tankers, hope IAF goes along with A 300's here. Preferably 20 in batches.

FM must agree on European tankers now. Those tankers can also be used for cargo within sometime. We are putting so much money into MRCAs. IAF deserves best tankers.

Bhai it's A-330 not 300. anyhow. A-330 tankers are really good and multipurpose.

Thanks for correction , agree with you here, this is a better platform then then IL 78's we are using as of now

I dont think we will be buying A 330 but rather converting more of our IL 76 to 78MKI, and adding more C-17's, or we would be buying A330, but that means we will retire the IL's by 2020, seems early. But none of us know the spares and uptime's situation of the IL-76, maybe they are good as retired now

Adux, I guess, chances are remote for this, I think we will gradually retire the IL 76's and cannibalize them for spares to be used for IL 78's and the phalcons. And standardize on A 330's for tanker role

China will try to fly her large military transport before opening of next year's national congress

And it is not like China is starting from nowhere: China has been independently producing Au24, An12 derivatives for decades, she also test flew a B707 knockoff 3 decades ago. China has also been supplying parts such as tail sections, doors to both Boeing and airbus for along long time. Currently China's first regional jet ARJ21 is about to enter serial production, anda larger B737 class aircraft is due to take to the sky in 2014. China has also acquired aircraft manufacturing experience from the west in the form of MD82 assembly in the 80's and the current A320 assembly project. In the past, China lacked the money and the know-how to really complete a large jet project, that's why Y10(B707) was shelved after around 100 flgiths, but time has changed. Some design help from Ukraine would be a welcome addition, but is no longer the absolute requirement.

Why is one indian defence forum censuring the other? The site for the above link is ******************

Because its not an Indian forum , its run by Pakistani's

I think you are right about this. India needs atleast 100 C-17's in the medium term. We need to increase our Strategic lift, to a level where the war will be fought in their homeland rather in ours. I hope IAF will love having both IL's and C-17's together, and increase C-17's to the bare minimum of 46.

A-330 MRTT is good transport and refueler, far better than the IL's

Your link don't work. China doesn't have the wind tunnel to test oversized aircraft which is why Ukraine is building them one. It also doesn't have D-30 class engines to power it. Building obsolete tactical transports and tails for commercial airliners does not equal a capability to produce strategic transport aircraft. C919 isn't scheduled to fly for several more years and building a much bigger transporter is going to take another decade on top of it at least.