by Aayush

India has one of the largest air force in the world but the condition of the Indian Air Force’s combat as well as transport fleet is raising serious questions about the force’s preparedness and national security.

It was not long ago when in an aerial engagement an Indian MiG-21 piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthman shot down an F-16 of the Pakistani Air Force; with unconfirmed reports claiming that the pilot of the Pakistani jet was beaten to death by the locals.

It became a topic of heated debate in the Indian as well as International media that why a MiG-21 Bison was sent to intercept a much advanced F-16? Is the Indian Air Force short of fighters? How was the old soviet jet able to knock the F-16 using a R-73 missile?

To understand this one must realise that the sanctioned strength of the Indian Air Force’s combat fleet is 42 squadrons which has depleted to 29 or 30 squadrons of these squadrons also many are obsolete the MiG-21 squadrons, MiG-27 squadrons, Jaguar squadrons (which have been upgraded recently but still they are old). The Indian air force has the dubious distinction of flying these aircrafts which has been phased out by most of the countries who maintained these fleets.

Measures are being taken to address this issue but the current rate of production of Tejas Mk1 and the indecision of the government of India about the rest of the MMRCA jets is making the process slow. The government of India is in a quandary in going ahead with the deal, as the U.S is aggressively pitching F-21s. On the other hand the AMCA (Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft) is still on the drawing boards. So, indigenous options are limited in this case.

History of An-32

The aircraft which has crashed is an An-32, An stands for Antonov. Russian or Soviet aircrafts are named after the designer who sets up the design bureau for example – MiG stands for Mikhoyan Gurevich and Il stands for Ilyushin . 

Prior to the An-32 , the Indian Air Force had flown A-12 which was a big 4 engine aircraft. An-12 was the mainstay of the Indian Air Force, as soon as they were retired the IAF started looking for a medium transport aircraft in late 70’s and early 80’s. Bids were invited from different manufacturers but it was the time of cold war and it was not easy for the government to buy Western equipment (but it was almost around the same time when the IAF had gone ahead with the purchase of Jaguar which was an Anglo-French-European production). India went ahead with the Soviets as India had an option of buying from the Soviet Union in terms of barter trade or Rupee Ruble trade so it did not cost the country foreign exchange. India had a very strong foreign relation with the Soviet Union under the leadership of Indira Gandhi and Leonid Brezhnev in the respective countries.

The RFP (Request for Proposal) was floated and the specification for the aircraft included high lifting capacity, a robust design, and requirement of minimum maintenance, ability to land and take off from short, high altitude air strips. Soviets did not have any aircraft which matched these specifications. 

So, the Antonov design bureau designed a new aircraft “An-32” from an existing aircraft the An-26. The An-32 was powered by Ivchenko AI-20 turboprop engines (Ivchenko Series engines which were used in An-12) which made it capable of carrying higher weight and the placement of these engines made it capable of take-off from high altitudes.

India ordered 120 of these aircraft in the course of time. The factory which produced this aircraft was in Ukraine which later became a sovereign nation after the disintegration of Soviet Union. Some factories which manufactured the spare parts for An-32 were in Crimea which was annexed by Russia and as a result the spare parts supply chain was disrupted delaying the upgrades. 

Analysis of The Transport Fleet:

The An-32 is a fantastic machine but it was inducted almost 3 decades ago. With the replacement plans still on back burner the IAF has decided to upgrade these aircrafts. Due to various reasons the upgrades are also happening at a substantially slow pace. Only one-third of the fleet has been upgraded yet.

The An-32 which has crashed was also not an upgraded one, so its communication system is of a different generation and that is why SOS signals from it were not picked up. After a search and rescue operation with all the available resources including Mi-17 helicopters, Sukhoi Jets, P8I aircraft of the Indian navy and several space assets deployed it took almost a week to find the wreckage of the unfortunate machine. The crash costed the nation 13 lives.

Till date 18 An-32s have crashed raising serious questions on the aircraft’s dependability. Apart from India only a handful of countries bought the An-32.

Mexico -1

Sri Lanka – 3 (2 Lost in due course of time)

Sudan - 6 

With the upgrades still behind schedules the IAF is compelled to fly the An-32s, the probability for the fleet’s replacement is thin as the MTA deal with Russia has also not given results. An-32 is a rugged plane and the workhorse of the IAF but the requirement for a new aircraft should be considered very seriously by South Block.

This article is written by Aayush Sinha, former defence technology reporter for Indian Military Review. The writer is also doing research on India's Nuclear Doctrine for an India-based think tank. Views expressed are his own