November 03, 2012: In yet another loss to Moscow in a big-ticket Indian military tender, EADS/Airbus Military has emerged as the winner in the Indian Air Force's tender for six new generation flight refuelling aircraft (RFA). The victory may be especially sweet to Airbus considering that an earlier victory saw the tender being cancelled in January 2010 as a result of high acquisition cost of the A330 MRTT, with a prospective contract being shot down at the eleventh hour by the Ministry of Finance. This time, however, with a renewed focus on life-cycle and ownership cost, Airbus Military has been able to stress on the advantages of its package a whole lot better. In fact, sources say its rival in the competition, the Ilyushin-78M had a lower unit cost per aircraft—it is significantly smaller—but the overall commercial package offered by EADS/Airbus was more competitive, and therefore the selection.

It may be remembered that the IAF had stuck its neck out to push through a deal with EADS the last time too, but in the absence of a life-cycle cost template to analyse total costs, the Finance Ministry put its foot down. EADS will be cautious about being declared the winner in the overall competition, though contract negotiations will still need to go through before a contract can be signed. The win is also important for EADS, which has suffered a string of setbacks in India over the last five years—the abortion of the 197 reconnaissance and surveillance helicopter (RSH) and flight refuelling aircraft tenders when EADS products had emerged winners—and the defeat of the Eurofighter in MMRCA fighter tender to rival Dassault earlier this year.

The A330 MRTT was put through trials in November last year in India, where it demonstrated in-flight refuelling of IAF Su-30MKI and Jaguar jets. According to Airbus Military, "The A330 MRTT is the most capable tanker/ transporter currently available. It is the only aircraft able to perform simultaneously three different types of missions: aerial refuelling (tanker role), passenger and/or freight transport, and/or medical evacuation (MEDEVAC). Also, its tank capacity is sufficient to supply the required fuel quantities without the need for any additional reservoirs, nor major structural modifications and it is able to carry more passengers and more freight than any of its competitors."

The deal is close to $1.35 billion.