As the year 2014 draws to a close, a review of the state of military aviation in the country during the last 12 months reveals that for the Indian Air Force (IAF), the year has been one of agonising wait, deferment and disappointment in its effort at sustaining the drive to modernisation it has embarked on. While the nation continues to enjoy the dubious distinction of being the largest importer of defence related equipment, the IAF continues to be afflicted with uncertainty in the procurement of some major weapons platforms.

The first half of the year was marked by near total paralysis in decision making as the nation was heading for general elections that was marked by anticipation of profound changes. The United Progressive Alliance II Government then in power during the first five months of the year preferred not to take any decisions to finalise tenders and award contracts and left it to the new government to progress matters further. The new Modi Government that took over the reins of power in the last week of May this year, has in fact rekindled hopes of the IAF that its efforts at acquiring the urgently needed weapons platforms would finally begin to bear fruit and translate into reality.

For the IAF, the dawn of the year 2014 witnessed the arrival of a new incumbent when on new year’s day, a day on which Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha took over as the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) from Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne. The CAS has been making concerted effort to clear the backlog of issues facing the IAF apart from battling the multitude of bureaucratic and financial hurdles.

COMBAT AIRCRAFT FLEET OF THE IAF

The state of the combat aircraft fleet of the IAF at the end of the year 2014 is far from satisfactory. This fleet will be the spearhead of any military venture that the Indian armed forces will be called upon to undertake in the future. The application of aerospace power would be decisive in winning a war in the future through swift and precise response. This capability will be all the more critical in the context of a two-front war that may be thrust upon the nation. Since the last major inductions of the 1980s, the combat potential of the IAF has been eroding steadily and in year gone by, with the retirement of the older fleets such as the MiG-21 and the MiG-23 inducted in the 1960s and 1970s, the strength of the combat fleet in 2014 has reduced to 32 squadrons as against a currently authorised level of 39.5 squadrons. In the meantime, the government has accorded approval for the strength of combat squadrons to be enhanced to 42 squadrons by the end of the Fourteenth Five Year Plan (2022-27) and eventually to 45 squadrons by the Fifteeth Five Year Plan (2027-32). However, as things stand at the end of 2014, the IAF is staring at further reduction in the strength of the combat fleet as the remaining MiG-21 Bis and the MiG-27 squadrons are scheduled to retire in the next three to four years and fresh inductions in this time frame to compensate for the drop in the number of squadrons continues to remain uncertain at the end of the current year.

Su-30MKI Fleet. The last round of infusion into the combat aircraft fleet of the IAF was by way of the Su-30MKI, a new generation platform from Russia. The Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) contracted for a fleet of 272 aircraft over a decade and a half ago. Of these, the first 50 were procured in a fly-away condition directly from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and the remaining are being manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at their facility at Nasik in Maharashtra. Dubbed as “Air Dominance Fighter”, Induction of the Su-30MKI fleet continued through the year 2014 and has now crossed the 200 mark. The date for completion of the induction of the total fleet on order that was originally scheduled for 2017 has now been revised this year and is expected to be completed by 2019. The IAF could well order more of these, hopefully with fifth-generation attributes. Unfortunately, the IAF has been facing a variety of problems with the Su-30MKI fleet and the year 2014 witnessed the most perplexing one when on October 14, 2014, while an aircraft on approach for a landing at Pune airfield, both the ejection seats fired on their own. The pilots were safe but the aircraft was lost. This freak accident has raised serious concerns about the reliability of the fleet especially as it is and will remain the mainstay of the combat fleet of the IAF.

Medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA). The quest of the IAF to acquire 126 (six squadrons) of the MMRCA from Dassault Aviation of France for which the request for proposal (RFP) was floated in 2007, continued to wallow in uncertainty through the year 2014. The IAF had completed the technical and flight evaluation of the six contenders in the race for the MMRCA contract by the beginning of 2012 and had shortlisted two, the Dassault Rafale and the EADS Eurofighter. Contract negotiations that were commenced soon after with the lowest bidder Dassault Aviation and has continued through the year 2014. However, despite the repeated assurances by the highest echelons of the IAF, the finalisation of ncontract negotiations and the award of contract remain elusive. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Minister of Defence, France, arrived in India on November 30, 2014, for a two-day visit and held discussions with Manohar Parrikar, Minister of Defence, to try and end the nearly threeyear deadlock over the finalisation of the contract for the 126 MMRCA. But the year has gone by and the final word is yet to be said. Apparently, the impasse resulted from reluctance on the part of Dassault to accept responsibility for these 108 aircraft to be built by HAL in respect of delivery schedules, quality assurance and liquidated damages. It is understood that these issues have now been settled. If this be true, it would be a major milestone in the MMRCA deal crossed in the year 2014.

FIFTH-GENERATION FIGHTER AIRCRAFT (FGFA)

In early 2007, India and Russia jointly embarked on a project to jointly develop an FGFA, a two seat derivative of the T-50 PAK FA, customised for the IAF. The funding, engineering and Intellectual Property was to shared equally by the two parties. The joint development deal would have each country invest $6 billion and was expected to take around a decade to develop the platform that would propel the IAF into the next generation. In December 2010, a memorandum of understanding for preliminary design of the Indo-Russian FGFA was signed between HAL and Russian companies Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi. The IAF has plans to procure a total of 214 a mix of twin- and single-seat platforms with the first lot to be inducted in 2017. For one reason or another the project had slowed down considerably and the IAF had begun to harbour serious doubts about its future. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin discussed the matter during a summit in Brazil in July this year and both the leaders agreed that the FGFA project must move forward. The year 2014 has revived hopes for the IAF to enter the fifth-generation. As per the plans made public by the IAF this year, the FGFA is scheduled to go into series production by 2021.

TEJAS LIGHT COMBAT AIRCRAFT

Having secured the initial operational clearance in December 2013, the Aeronautical Development Agency that has been engaged in the development of the Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) since 1983, had scheduled its Final Operational Clearance by the end of 2014. This deadline has unfortunately been missed and the revised time line is March 2015.

TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT FLEET

Compared with the combat aircraft fleet, the transport fleet is decidedly in a better shape. Induction of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and the C-130J Super Hercules from Lockheed Martin in the recent years has given the IAF new strategic and tactical airlift capabilities. The C-17 has provided the IAF with global reach and the C-130J has added a new dimension of special operations capability. In 2014 both these fleets rendered yeomen service in disaster relief operations in the Kashmir Valley. The IAF has placed orders to another six C-130J Super Hercules aircraft.

AIRBUS A330 MULTI-ROLE TANKER TRANSPORT (MRT) AIRCRAFT

The Airbus A330 MRTT flight refuelling aircraft was finally selected by the IAF in 2013 over Russia’s Ilyushin Il-78 in a deal worth nearly $2 billion for six aircraft. However, the deal seems to have encountered a roadblock in 2014 on account of a trivial procedural hurdle as the original bidder Cassidian has been renamed as Airbus Defence and Space with effect from January 1, 2014. This latest setback to the MRTT procurement follows another delay prompted by a clarification being sought by the Indian MoD from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into two cases of alleged wrongdoing in the sale of civilian Airbus A300s to Indian Airlines in the mid-1970s. While one of the two cases has been closed, the final word from the CBI on the second case is still awaited and without it the MRTT deal cannot be signed.

REPLACEMENT OF THE AVRO FLEET

The proposal to involve the aerospace industry in the private sector in India to meet with equipment needs of the IAF was initiated by the former Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne. This appears to be materialising in 2014 as in response to a request for proposal (RFP) issued in May 2013 by the MoD for procurement of 56 aircraft to replace the obsolescent Avro fleet of the IAF, global aircraft major Airbus Defence and Space and India’s Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) of the Tata Group have jointly offered the Airbus C-295 mediumlift military transport aircraft under ‘Buy and Make’ route. In case the proposal by Airbus and TASL for the C-295 which is a proven platform, is finally accepted, the first 16 aircraft will come in ‘flyaway’ condition from Airbus’s final assembly line and the remaining 40 aircraft will be manufactured and assembled by Tata Advanced Systems in India. This includes undertaking structural assembly, final aircraft assembly, systems integration and testing and management of the indigenous supply chain. This will be a major development for not only the Indian aerospace industry in the private sector but for the IAF as well. Unfortunately, in December 2014, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by the newly appointed Minister of Defence Manohar Parrikar has for the second time deferred the decision on Tata-Airbus Defence and Space partnership for jointly producing the Airbus C-295 medium transport aircraft. The main issue appears to be that this has turned out to be a single vendor situation something that is not acceptable under the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP). Possibly, the tender may have to reissued in the following year. Replacement for the Avro fleet is unlikely to be available in the near future.

INDO-RUSSIAN MULTI-ROLE TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT

In October 2009, India and Russia embarked on a project to jointly develop a multi-role transport aircraft (MTA) of around 15-tonne payload capacity to replace the fleet of An-32 aircraft of the IAF. The IAF has plans to acquire 45 of these. However, as of 2014, the MTA project appears to be in a stalemate. There are a number of issues over which there is lack of consensus between the two parties involved. These pertain mainly to cost and work sharing that remain unresolved. The HAL has not put together a team strong enough to push the project forward. The user has also not been pursuing the project aggressively. As of 2014, the project appears to be a non-starter.

THE ROTARY-WING FLEET

The year 2014 has been somewhat disappointing for both the Indian Army and the IAF as after hanging fire for a considerable length of time, the tender for 197 light utility helicopter (LUH) to replace the ageing fleet of Cheetah and Chetak has finally been cancelled. The responsibility now lies with the Indian aerospace industry in the public sector to offer a solution for a market that would be over 400 platforms.

But there is some encouraging news as well. In the last week of August this year, the DAC cleared proposals relating to the purchase of two types of rotary-wing platforms for the IAF. These include proposal for the procurement of 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, both from the American aerospace major Boeing. The way is now clear for the contracts to be concluded the total value of which is estimated to be around Rs. 15,000 crore. This was a long pending deal that has been cleared in the year gone by.