Tata, Mahindra, HAL in race as govt floats Rs 1 lakh crore IAF tender for 60 aircraft

New Delhi: Looking to replace its ageing fleet of cargo planes, the Defence Ministry today issued a tender worth around Rs one lakh crore for buying 60 multirole transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force.

The tender has been issued to multiple Indian companies, including Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Tata, and Mahindra, Defence Officials told ANI, adding that "In the programme, Indian companies would be in the lead role."

Mahindra Defence has tied up with Embraer of Brazil to offer its C-390 transport plane, while Tata is going with Lockheed Martin to offer their C-130 plane, which is already in the Indian Air Force for special operations roles.


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The programme would see around 20 per cent of the planes joining the Indian Air Force in fly-away condition, while the rest of them would be manufactured in India with over 60 per cent indigenous content. The aircraft will be built in India through joint ventures between Indian companies and the original equipment manufacturer, HAL.

The Indian Air Force already operates 12 C-130J Super Hercules planes in its fleet. In addition, IAF is already working with Airbus on the C-295 transport aircraft, as around 70 of them are going to be inducted into the forces, with the majority of them being made in India.

The Indian Air Force has already issued a tender for buying 114 Rafale fighter jets as part of its modernisation plan, while it is also looking at inducting over 100 trainer planes to replace its Hawk jet trainers and augmenting its capacity to train its pilots in view of the increasing number of fighter jet squadrons.

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The Indian Air Force may also use the MTA planes as tankers for refuelling aircraft in the air and to transport equipment and troops at a rapid pace.