Opinion Why India Needs Indegenous Alternative of Aging IL-76 Transport Aircraft Like China's Y-20A

India's growing geopolitical ambitions necessitate a robust and versatile air transport capability for its Air Force. The aging Ilyushin IL-76 fleet, a cornerstone of India's strategic airlift since the 1980s, faces mounting challenges in terms of maintenance, fuel efficiency, and payload capacity. This underscores the urgent need for modernization.

China's Xian Y-20A, with its advanced avionics, impressive payload capacity, and extended range, serves as a relevant benchmark. Its ability to operate from diverse airstrips further accentuates its appeal as a model for India to emulate.

Developing such an aircraft domestically demands substantial advancements in aerospace technology, necessitating focused efforts from India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and collaboration with industry partners. Establishing production capabilities would require significant investments in infrastructure and skilled workforce.

While the financial outlay is considerable, the long-term benefits in terms of strategic autonomy, customized solutions, and potential export opportunities make this investment worthwhile.

Replacing the IL-76 fleet with a domestically developed aircraft similar to the Y-20A is a challenging yet achievable goal for India. It would not only modernize the IAF's airlift capabilities but also strengthen India's position in the global aerospace industry.

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

Factoring in exports is pointless. There is a lot of competition in international market for large transport airccraft. Just look at china, it does not have even 1 export customer.

 

[sanket]

India need Foreign partner & Embraer is good choice. need to buy some stakes in Embraer

 

[shivkumar sinha]

Indigenous capability to produce such aircrafts is critical for Bharat as it can be customised for other needs like refuellers,AWACS ,bombers and specialised ISTAR roles .

 

[abhinav srivastava]

India need Foreign partner & Embraer is good choice. need to buy some stakes in Embraer

Barter missile tech with them.

 

[Ranjeet Singh]

Not only transport aircraft we should also develop stealth bomber like B-21 !

 

[Pad UwU]

Just buy a foreign design aircraft or license produce it with a introduction of Indian built parts.... Its way way cheaper and faster to deploy, maintain and produce than wasting money plus time wasted waiting for it's prototype that sooner or later will be scrap😹😹😹....

or just buy majority stake in Bombardier or Embraer so we can force it to make a production line here in India plus a R&D

 

[Kira]

Factoring in exports is pointless. There is a lot of competition in international market for large transport airccraft. Just look at china, it does not have even 1 export customer.

Valid point,also from Chinese perspective,it's makes perfect sense to develop a dedicated cargo plane for both military and civilian needs because of the large size of their aviation market.

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

Valid point,also from Chinese perspective,it's makes perfect sense to develop a dedicated cargo plane for both military and civilian needs because of the large size of their aviation market.

Most chinese airlines use boeing or airbus aircraft for civilian use. C919 that is an airliner domestically built by china has a few export customers but China had to basically give huge discounts to them to buy it. And most of the parts in the C919 is imported from US and EU. It is impossible to compete with boeing and airbus when it comes to civilian airliner market. Companies like bombardier and embraer, are very old and and have long history of designing aircraft but even they do not compete with them.

If we want to develop our own large aircraft then it will take 30-40 billion dollars and 15years, and even then we will be importing most of the stuff. And no one else will buy it. China is a good example.

 

[kumar]

Private sector can invest in JV with embrear for heavy lift aircraft and also for JV in c390s production.

 

[Sandeep]

India can design and develop a strategic transport plane but it will take a long time. Usually it will take about 10-15+ years to design, develop, test and manufacture it. It will also be expensive and we will have to rely on foreign engines and maybe some equipment, parts, components, sensors and technology.

However India can always make a deal to manufacture those planes with a foreign OEM. This will allow us to learn how to build and operate such a large plane. This will be a quicker and sure way to get brand new planes to replace our older planes.

Currently India should upgrade all of the IL 76 planes to increase its lifespan for another 10+ years or more. With any upgrades we should make sure that they are mostly done indigenously in India.

 

[Anant]

A few points to consider:

1. Developing an airlifter such as the Y-20 as a replacement for the Il-76 in India is possible, but requires scale.

2. Such an endeavour will fail if we plan for only 17 (one-for-one with the Il-76) or even 30 orders. A larger order will be needed.

3. One of the points of consideration here might be to follow what China has done. That is, if we can develop such an aircraft, then we could go for potentially 35-ish airframes as transports and airlifters, another 12-15 or so as aerial refuelers, and another another 5 or so as AWACS aircraft.

4. Export orders should not be counted when considering the initial feasibility of the project, but if we can mimic the C-17s performance to an extent, as well as bring in some level of parts commonality (such as using the P&W 2000 engine), then export orders might materialise, considering that a number of nations were wishing to buy C-17s when the production lines were wound down.

5. A feasible project will require a production run of atleast 70-100 aircraft. As such, some level of civilian usage would also have to be explored, with part of the production run being diverted for those uses.

6. It should be accepted that such an aircraft development project will take 12-15 or so years to enter production.

If such a project is pursued, we would have to take the following things into consideration as interim alternatives:

1. The Il-76 fleet is aging rapidly, and almost certainly will not be serviceable beyond 2033-35. In such a scenario, with this new aircraft not being available until 2040 or so, we would have to work on leases of either American C-17s, or Russian Il-76s for the 6-10 year gap.

2. The Il-78 fleet will also not be serviceable beyond the early 2030s. As it is, those aircraft are facing some pretty significant issues. Hence, if this new aircraft is being developed, we would have to lease or procure 3 or so aerial refuelers in the interim. This could be done simply by either converting civilian aircraft for the role, or by purchasing second-hand KC-10 refuelers from the USA as an interim measure. The former option (conversion of civilian aircraft) would allow fir a wider timeframe of usage.

 

[ASHOK CARROL]

The venture can plan now build infrastructure hangers testing airfields , design equipment and commence production by 2030 . The production and costs will only be justified if the defense services place orders for over 120 aircraft +another120-150are ordered by BSF , ITBP ,SSF, SSB , ASSAM RIFLES , CISF , CRPF and coast guard ,including domestic cargo companies .

 

[desigandu]

Just buy a foreign design aircraft or license produce it with a introduction of Indian built parts.... Its way way cheaper and faster to deploy, maintain and produce than wasting money plus time wasted waiting for it's prototype that sooner or later will be scrap😹😹😹....

or just buy majority stake in Bombardier or Embraer so we can force it to make a production line here in India plus a R&D

Good suggestion, but neither the Brazilians nor the Canadians will allow a sale. A local JV may be feasible with a local partner and licensed production!

 

[Pad UwU]

Good suggestion, but neither the Brazilians nor the Canadians will allow a sale. A local JV may be feasible with a local partner and licensed production!

Well if they don't sell the whole company we might just invest and ask for JV partnership it's still a win win solution for both of us😺

 

[RG]

India should focus its capabilities for MTA for now. KC-390 is a good platform to consolidate on, and Private players along with Public sector could take initiative for larger platform onces Mid tiers transport is consolidated, Tata with C-295 skills, Mahindra with KC-390 skills, DRDO and HAL can work in a joint effort for such projects with govt funding based on progressive deliverables.

 

[Anant]

The venture can plan now build infrastructure hangers testing airfields , design equipment and commence production by 2030 . The production and costs will only be justified if the defense services place orders for over 120 aircraft +another120-150are ordered by BSF , ITBP ,SSF, SSB , ASSAM RIFLES , CISF , CRPF and coast guard ,including domestic cargo companies .

Sir, firstly, even if we were to start work today, we'd start production after 2035, not 2030. Literally nothing exists for the project now unless we decide to use whatever stuff we have left from the aborted Il-276 collaboration.

Secondly, only the IAF would purchase an airlifter of this size. The other armed forces have no need for such an aircraft. We might perhaps see upwards of 50 orders from the IAF (35 or so transports plus 10 or so refuellers plus 5 or so AWACS). Other than that, the only hope is domestic cargo companies, of which we have very few that would need an aircraft this large.

 

[Prem Sharma]

If we can successfully launch our space missions then why we can't develop our own aircraft & why everyone saying it will take decades of time along with investment of billions of dollars..? Will someone explain me...

 

[Radium]

Just buy a foreign design aircraft or license produce it with a introduction of Indian built parts.... Its way way cheaper and faster to deploy, maintain and produce than wasting money plus time wasted waiting for it's prototype that sooner or later will be scrap😹😹😹....

or just buy majority stake in Bombardier or Embraer so we can force it to make a production line here in India plus a R&D

Bombardier is not advanced enough, India must take immediate action and directly purchase a majority stake in Boeing, forcing Boeing to establish 10 production lines in India

 

[Shailesh Ghanshyam Chaudhari]

Inventing extremely strong but very light in weight material is challenging, Boeing alone leads this Arena. Hope, we too have complete ToT some day or do it Atmanirbhar way.