New Delhi: The IAF is in the final stages of finalising a Request for Proposal (RFP) for its long-awaited Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) programme, a move that could finally pave the way for replacing the ageing Antonov AN-32 fleet after nearly two decades of delays.
Sources in the defence and security establishment said that the RFP is likely to be issued in the next three months, if not earlier.The primary task of the over 100 AN-32s with the IAF is to deliver all that is needed for the sustenance of soldiers across the country, from high altitude and mountainous terrain to the island chains.
Incidentally, after a 2009 crash of an AN-32, India had signed a USD 400 million contract with the Ukrainian manufacturer Antonov to upgrade the IAF’s 105 AN-32s by overhauling the airframes and Ivchenko AI-20 turboprop engines, and fitting the platforms with advanced avionics, navigation and communication equipment.However, the upgradation programme got stalled in 2015 due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia when the latter annexed the Crimea region.Later, India and Ukraine agreed to resume the upgrade programme as Kiev developed alternatives to replace the Russian-made systems on the platforms.But the upgrade programme, which is now being carried out at the IAF’s base repair depot (BRD) in Kanpur, using equipment transferred from Ukraine, is yet to be completed due to supply chain issues.The crash in Jorhat Saturday was the 10th such incident since its induction in 1984.The Antonov AN-32 is an upgraded version of the AN-26, which was purchased by India from the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1984. It is a twin-engine turboprop aircraft, and had been employed as a tactical transport aircraft by the IAF since the beginning.The AN-32 is considered the backbone of the IAF’s transport fleet, with the ability to carry up to 6.7 tons of cargo or 50 passengers across a wide variety of terrain.While the C-295, jointly manufactured by Airbus and TATA group, which will replace the Avro aircraft, is the ideal replacement in terms of weight carrying capacity, MTA is the intended programme.This is because the IAF is looking at MTA as the replacement for not just the AN-32s but also the IL-76s.
