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Letter of Request (LOR) has been issued to the Government of United States of America for procurement of C-17 Globemaster-III aircraft for Indian Air Force (IAF) from United States of America, through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route. In response, Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) has been received, which is being progressed. A technology scan was carried out as per the Defence Procurement Procedure 2008 which brought out that the C-17 Globemaster-III aircraft best meets the operational requirements of a Very Heavy Transport Aircraft (VHETAC) class for the Indian Air Force.

India moved one step closer to boosting its heavy airlift capability: Yesterday, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced that it recently notified Congress of the Indian government’s request to purchase 10 Boeing-built C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft. The deal, which is currently being negotiated between India and Boeing and to be carried out within the US Foreign Military Sale (FMS) programme, has an estimated value of $5.8 billion (€4.33 billion). The procurement of these aircraft would represent India’s largest acquisition of US defence equipment as well as Boeing’s largest order from India, following the $2.1 billion contract on...

Ivanov Promised to Discard 90 Percent of Combat and Transport Aircraft Over 90 percent of Russia’s combat and transport jets will be discarded by 2015, said First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, emphasizing the obsolete nature of the country's transport aircraft fleet, RIA Novosti reported. The transport planes that are at disposal of the RF Air Force have become obsolete “both physically and morally,” the first deputy prime minister said, blaming it on the low rates of new aircraft development and on reduction in supplies of existing jets. The situation with civil cargo aircraft isn’t much better, Ivanov pointed out....

First flights of Japan’s indigenously-developed C-X transport and P-X maritime patrol aircraft appear to be drawing closer, with images of the first completed prototypes having been released by the defence ministry’s Technical Research and Development Institute. Led by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the approximately $2.8 billion C-X/P-X project is intended to deliver replacements for Tokyo’s current air force fleet of Kawasaki C-1 airlifters and initially part of the navy's current inventory of Kawasaki/Lockheed Martin P-3 MPA. Japan's TRDI has meanwhile conducted test flights of a C-1 testbed modified to carry an Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries XF7 engine which will be used to...