New Delhi: India’s TATA group and US aviation major Lockheed Martin will set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in the country to support the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) existing fleet of 12 C-130J Super Hercules aircraft as well as those operated by other countries.
This is the first proper MRO facility to be established by a major aviation firm in India and will also cater to the global C-130J fleet spanning 27 operators in 23 nations.
A joint statement issued by the companies also said they have agreed to expand a C-130J manufacturing and assembly in India to produce planes for the IAF’s Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) program, if and when they bag the contract.
This means Lockheed Martin will establish additional production and assembly capacity in India.
The American company will, however, continue to build C-130Js for the US and other global operators at the existing Super Hercules production facility in Marietta, Georgia, USA.
Sukaran Singh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Advanced Systems, said that the collaboration with Lockheed Martin on the C-130J platform proposition for IAF’s MTA project was “a milestone for Tata Advanced Systems”.
He added this also marked the entry of Tata Advanced Systems into the defence MRO space in India for large-aircraft platforms.
Incidentally, Lockheed Martin and Tata Advanced Systems Limited have a joint venture called Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Ltd., (TLMAL), which was established in 2010.
It is the single global source of C-130J empennage assemblies included on all new Super Hercules aircraft produced in the United States. To date, TLMAL has manufactured more than 220 C-130J empennages.
Both companies are eyeing the IAF contract for MTA, which as reported by ThePrint in August last year, is the mega transport aircraft deal that India is looking at.
The MTA project
The IAF is seeking to procure anywhere between 40 to 80 aircraft that will seek to replace the old workhorses of the force—AN-32s and, possibly, the IL-76s.
As per a Request for Information (RFI) issued by the IAF in December 2022, it is looking at an aircraft with a load-carrying capacity of 18 to 27 tonnes.
There are three companies in competition for this deal. While Lockheed has offered its C-130 aircraft, Embraer has proposed its latest C-390 Millennium, and Airbus its A-400 M.
This is where the competition becomes tricky, because all three aircraft are very different from each other, not just in terms of lift and operational capabilities, but also in terms of engines. Both the C-130 and the A-400 M are turboprop, but the C-390 has a jet engine.
On the other hand, the C-130J–which is the most-advanced C-130–just meets the minimum requirement with its airlift capacity of about 20 tonnes, but the C-390 satisfies the upper requirement mentioned by the IAF as its load-carrying capacity is 26 tonnes. The A-400 M goes beyond the specified requirement with a capacity of 37 tonnes.
It was initially believed that the C-295, jointly manufactured by TATA and Airbus, could replace the An-32s which have similar load-carrying capacity. However, the IAF’s technical requirements for the MTA meant that the C-295 could not compete.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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