Source: DTN News / Business Standard By Ajai Shukla / New Delhi May 31, 2010(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - June 1, 2010: Operation Cactus in 1988 boosted India’s 
regional stature when Russian-built IL-76 aircraft airlifted hundreds of paratroopers 2,000 km, non-stop, to the Maldives within 12 hours of an SOS from that country’s coup-embattled president.
With India’s fleet of 24 IL-76 aircraft now obsolescent, planners have decided to buy Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster III, widely acknowledged as the world’s most versatile military transport aircraft.
The downside: At over half a billion dollars a piece, the Globemaster is also the world’s most expensive air-lifter. With criticism rising of India’s $5.8 billion (Rs 27,000 crore) purchase of 10 Globemasters, Boeing now says India could actually pay far less.
Responding to a question from Business Standard about the Globemaster’s high cost, Vivek Lall, the India chief of Boeing Defence Space & Security (BDS), clarified by email that the $5.8 billion, “is on the higher side of what the actual cost could be…. India may not need all the services and items that the US Air Force is offering them. The final cost will be determined by the actual requirements of the Indian Air Force and after negotiations are held.”
In accordance with US law, the US Congress (legislature) was notified on April 23 that India wanted to buy 10 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft directly from the US government (under the Foreign Military Sale, or FMS, programme) for an estimated $580 million per aircraft. In contrast, the IL-76 can be bought for less than one-tenth that price: about $50 million per aircraft.
The $580-million tag could become even bigger if India buys secure communications (COMSEC) and Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation aids, by signing two safeguard agreements that US law demands but New Delhi has so far rejected: The Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation. The recent Congress notification indicates that India’s C-17s will not be fitted with COMSEC equipment; GPS security devices; and certain “Government Furnished equipment”.
AlternativesLall indicated that Boeing would provide alternatives to the COMSEC and GPS, but said, “We do not discuss detailed aircraft components, as the deal is a foreign military sale and is between the two governments.”
Business Standard has examined requests, placed to the US Congress over several years, for C-17 sales to NATO, Canada, Australia, the UAE and Oman to determine how Boeing’s ex-factory price of $200-220 million for each unfitted C-17 Globemaster escalates to $580 million for each of the fully-kitted military aircraft that India is buying.
The data indicate that the basic military aircraft, built at Boeing’s Long Beach facility outside Los Angeles, California, costs about $350 million. An additional $150 million per aircraft goes on spare engines, maintenance spares, electronic protection systems, and logistics.
Finally, Boeing’s global maintenance network for the C-17 — called the Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership or GSP charges $75 million every three years — i.e. $25 million per year — to ensure each aircraft covered in this plan remains flying, functional and available almost 90 per cent of the time.
Boeing has confirmed that India was joining the GSP and that the notification to the US Congress included that cost.
Largest C-17 userOnce India’s planned procurement of 10 Globemaster IIIs is completed, it will be the largest C-17 user outside the US, which operates 198 Globemasters. Other users are the UK (six aircraft); Australia and Canada (four aircraft); Qatar (two aircraft) and NATO (three aircraft).
Operating from short, mud-paved landing strips such as those on India’s borders, the C-17 can lift 75-tonne payloads to anywhere in China, Central Asia, the Gulf countries and much of Southeast Asia, without refuelling. Capable of carrying 188 passengers, or 102 fully-kitted paratroopers, Globemasters have brought out as many as 300 refugees at a time during humanitarian missions from disaster zones like Haiti.
The C-17 can also transport a battle-loaded Arjun or T-90 tank, or a Chinook helicopter with its rotors dismantled.
regional stature when Russian-built IL-76 aircraft airlifted hundreds of paratroopers 2,000 km, non-stop, to the Maldives within 12 hours of an SOS from that country’s coup-embattled president.
With India’s fleet of 24 IL-76 aircraft now obsolescent, planners have decided to buy Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster III, widely acknowledged as the world’s most versatile military transport aircraft.
The downside: At over half a billion dollars a piece, the Globemaster is also the world’s most expensive air-lifter. With criticism rising of India’s $5.8 billion (Rs 27,000 crore) purchase of 10 Globemasters, Boeing now says India could actually pay far less.
Responding to a question from Business Standard about the Globemaster’s high cost, Vivek Lall, the India chief of Boeing Defence Space & Security (BDS), clarified by email that the $5.8 billion, “is on the higher side of what the actual cost could be…. India may not need all the services and items that the US Air Force is offering them. The final cost will be determined by the actual requirements of the Indian Air Force and after negotiations are held.”
In accordance with US law, the US Congress (legislature) was notified on April 23 that India wanted to buy 10 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft directly from the US government (under the Foreign Military Sale, or FMS, programme) for an estimated $580 million per aircraft. In contrast, the IL-76 can be bought for less than one-tenth that price: about $50 million per aircraft.
The $580-million tag could become even bigger if India buys secure communications (COMSEC) and Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation aids, by signing two safeguard agreements that US law demands but New Delhi has so far rejected: The Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation. The recent Congress notification indicates that India’s C-17s will not be fitted with COMSEC equipment; GPS security devices; and certain “Government Furnished equipment”.
AlternativesLall indicated that Boeing would provide alternatives to the COMSEC and GPS, but said, “We do not discuss detailed aircraft components, as the deal is a foreign military sale and is between the two governments.”
Business Standard has examined requests, placed to the US Congress over several years, for C-17 sales to NATO, Canada, Australia, the UAE and Oman to determine how Boeing’s ex-factory price of $200-220 million for each unfitted C-17 Globemaster escalates to $580 million for each of the fully-kitted military aircraft that India is buying.
The data indicate that the basic military aircraft, built at Boeing’s Long Beach facility outside Los Angeles, California, costs about $350 million. An additional $150 million per aircraft goes on spare engines, maintenance spares, electronic protection systems, and logistics.
Finally, Boeing’s global maintenance network for the C-17 — called the Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership or GSP charges $75 million every three years — i.e. $25 million per year — to ensure each aircraft covered in this plan remains flying, functional and available almost 90 per cent of the time.
Boeing has confirmed that India was joining the GSP and that the notification to the US Congress included that cost.
Largest C-17 userOnce India’s planned procurement of 10 Globemaster IIIs is completed, it will be the largest C-17 user outside the US, which operates 198 Globemasters. Other users are the UK (six aircraft); Australia and Canada (four aircraft); Qatar (two aircraft) and NATO (three aircraft).
Operating from short, mud-paved landing strips such as those on India’s borders, the C-17 can lift 75-tonne payloads to anywhere in China, Central Asia, the Gulf countries and much of Southeast Asia, without refuelling. Capable of carrying 188 passengers, or 102 fully-kitted paratroopers, Globemasters have brought out as many as 300 refugees at a time during humanitarian missions from disaster zones like Haiti.
The C-17 can also transport a battle-loaded Arjun or T-90 tank, or a Chinook helicopter with its rotors dismantled.
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