Globemaster to add to IAF’s airlift capabilities

[IND151]

India is all set to get genuine strategic airlift capabilities with the induction of the gigantic C-17 Globemaster-III aircraft, which will allow it to transport heavy armoured vehicles, howitzers and combat troops to distant battlefronts or hotspots at the double.

“The Hindon airbase will get the first C-17 aircraft from the US in mid-June, with another two following in July. The aircraft will be a huge strategic asset,” IAF chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne said. All the 10 C-17 aircraft, contracted for $4.1 billion in mid-2011 under the largest defence deal inked with the US till now, will reach Hindon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, by June 2015.

Capable as they are of landing on forward makeshift runways with short turnaround times, the rugged C-17s are central to the swift power-projection capabilities being slowly acquired by India to counter China’s massive build-up of military infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control, which includes at least five fully-operational airbases, an extensive rail network and over 58,000-km of roads in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

These giant four-engine airlifters also dovetail neatly into the Army’s endeavour to raise a new mountain strike corps (around 40,000 soldiers), apart from two “independent” infantry brigades and two “independent” armoured brigades, to plug operational gaps as well as to acquire “some ground offensive capabilities” against China.

With a cargo weight of 70 tonnes, the C-17s can take off, fly a distance of 4,200 km and land in a runway of just about 3,500 feet in length. With half the load, they can go more than double the distance. The C-17s will join the six C-130J ‘Super Hercules’ aircraft, much smaller than the former but equally adept at landing at austere airstrips, already based at Hindon for the last couple of years.

ACM Browne said the commercial negotiations for six more C-130J aircraft – the first six were acquired for $1.2 billion — between India and US were in the final stages. “We hope to ink the deal within this year, apart from the ones for 22 Apache attack and 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters,” he said.

Interestingly, the six new C-130J ‘Super Hercules’, which will also be customised for “special and covert operations” like the first six, will be based at Panagarh in West Bengal to take care of the eastern sector with China. The Army’s new mountain strike corps will also have its headquarters in Panagarh.

Both the C-17s and C-130Js will help rapidly rush troops and equipment to “advanced landing grounds” that are being progressively upgraded in eastern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh to strengthen deterrence military capabilities against China.

Globemaster to add to IAF