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To increase the strength of Air Force India has taken another step by buying six air to air refueling planes. But this time the winner of the tender is Airbus. European Airbus has defeated Russian Ilyusian. The deal is of $ 1.5 billion.
European Airbus A330 MRTT defeated Russian Ilyusian-78 (IL-78) because Airbus is the lowest bidder for life time cost of a plane in service.
Currently India is operating 6 IL-78 from Agra. These six will join IL’s to give extra flying range to aircrafts.
These air refueling tankers will be based in West Bengal at Panagarh. They will cover mainly Indo-China border and will supply fuel for front line aircrafts of Indian Air Force like Su-30 MKI and Mirage 2000.
Earlier in 2010 same deal was cancelled due to some problem with Finance Ministry. An official from Airbus has conferred the news that they will give six air refueling planes to India according to contract.
