In the recent tender the Indian Air Force is seeking proposals for the delivery of five new aerial tankers at an estimated cost of $2 billion. After Boeing dropped out of the race, only Airbus A330 and the Russian IL-78MKI remained. Both are addressing the IAF requirement for the delivery of new platforms. But the Boeing 767 could return to the scene from an unexpected direction – Bedek group is promoting its conversion of used Boeing 767/300 Multi-Mission Tanker-Transport (MMTT) which could be available with an entire Air-to-Air Refueling (AAR) kit, at half the price of new platforms.
The systems are similar to those already flying with India’s current IL-78MKI tankers. The Boeing 767 platform offers significant cost savings in operation as well as the benefit of flying simultaneously with fuel and cargo, the same aircraft could be easily configuration into flying hospitals for humanitarian assistance missions or perform as VIP transport, by introducing mission specific kits. Bedek has already delivered the first MMTT to Columbia.
