India's first C-130 heads for base in 2011

India's first two Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft will be flown from the United States to their home base at Hindon early next year.



Lockheed Martin handed over the first C-130J to the Indian air force earlier this month as part of an order for six aircraft. The $1.2 billion U.S. Foreign Military Sale -- India's first -- was signed in late 2008 at the DefExpo exhibition in New Delhi.

It was a breakthrough at the time for Lockheed Martin into India's military transport market.

"There are few mottos that impart such passion as that of the Indian air force, which is 'Touch the Sky with Glory'," Lorraine Martin, Lockheed Martin's vice president for C-130 Programs, said during the handover of the first aircraft. "Today begins a new glorious, enduring partnership with India as the fourth largest air force in the world proudly joins the worldwide C-130 family."

The first aircraft ran its four Rolls-Royce AE2100 engines equipped with Dowty six-blade propellers in September ahead of its maiden flight in October at Lockheed's hangar in Marietta, Ga.

The contract stipulates 80 percent availability of the C-130J fleet at any given time. To ensure this, Lockheed must supply an extensive support package to India because no infrastructure exists to maintain and repair the aircraft.

Support functions and programs include crew training and maintenance technicians, spares, ground support and test equipment, servicing carts, forklifts, loading vehicles and cargo pallets.

Sachin Tendulkar is Indian Air Force’s poster boy

Sachin Tendulkar, an inspiration for millions of Indians because of his feats in cricket, can now be seen in IAF fatigues along with the Sukhoi fighter aircraft in the force’s 2011 calendar. The cricket icon, who was recently conferred the honorary rank of Group Captain, features in the calendar wearing a green flying suit with helmet tucked under his left arm.

Sachin appears on the ‘January’ page of the calendar with an air superiority fighter Su-30MKI in the background, the aircraft which he is likely to be flying in after returning from the ongoing cricket series in South Africa.

Interestingly, Sachin is the only person appearing in the calendar which otherwise carries the pictures of various fighter planes and transport aircraft of the IAF.

The IAF said Sachin had been featured in the calendar to spread awareness about the force among the youth.

“He is a national hero and youth relate with him. Sachin’s association with the IAF will also help in spreading awareness about the force,” an IAF official said.

On September 3, the IAF conferred the honorary rank of Group Captain on Sachin for his cricketing achievements and contribution to the nation.

Sachin is the first sportsperson to be conferred a rank by IAF and the first personality with no aviation background to receive the honour.

“It’s a great pleasure and honour to be honoured by IAF. It was a wishful thinking and it has come true today. I’m extremely proud to be a part of IAF. I want to urge the youth to join air force and serve the nation. So dream, because dreams do come true,” he had said after receiving the honour.

Quicker Induction of jets is Key in MMRCA Tender : IAF Official

SOURCE : IDRW NEWS NETWROK

A high ranked serving officer in Indian air force have told (idrw.org), IAF is looking at quicker induction of the jets into air force, and without any further delays once the winner of the MMRCA Tender competition is out by Mid of next year .

IAF has made a detail study of all the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) Production capability of this jets and also how fast they can get their government approval for Transfer of Core Technology to India, and also ground tools and other spare supplies of the jet to HAL, so that local production of the 108 jets can start in India, first 18 aircraft will be directly sourced from the manufacturer.

Officer also admitted that aircrafts like Gripen NG, MiG-35 and F-16IN which are in the race are more of Built for India jets and Manufactures might face some minor or serious issues with this jets, since most of this jet are still in prototype stage and Avionics and other changes to the aircraft might suffer delays, which might delay whole Production line of the jets or HAL might have issues in doing local production of this jets which might result in to slow induction in IAF fleet.

IAF is already retiring more jets then inducting them and Mig-23 fleet has been already been retired and MMRCA aircraft will fill the gap of this jets, IAF will also be retiring Half of Mig-27 fleet by 2015, so this is a major concern for IAF, since this will also be the period where jets like Mig-29 and Mirage-2000 will be going through major Mid-life up gradation and pulling of this jets for up gradation will leave further void in IAF’s operational capability.

Key will be faster induction of MMRCA jets, and also take care that Sukhoi Su 30 MKI and Tejas MK-1 induction have smooth induction into IAF.