Major international military exercises are an opportunity to share the knowledge and experience of participating armies, and to enhance force interoperability. This is also an opportunity, on occasion, to fabricate articles from one or more military pieces of equipment, especially when it is known that partners are consulting in this area. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Air and Space Force sent to India, on the occasion of the Garuda 2022 exercise which was held from 26 October to 12 November 2022 at Jodhpur air base India, more than 5 Rafale aircraft and 130 pilots, a refueling aircraft A330 MRTT Phoenix, India is engaged in extensive consultations to acquire 6 of these aircraft to modernize and extend the restoration in aviation today which consists of only 6 IL-78 MKI for a fleet of over 540 combat aircraft, where France, for example, plans fielded 15 Phoenixes for 225 to 250 fighters, including the French Navy.

If the exercises carried out by the pilots and aircraft of the two countries make it possible to deepen mutual understanding about each other’s procedures, as happened in the previous 6 iterations which were held alternately in India and France, the Garuda 22 exercise will be in the spotlight. the MRTT performance, which is capable of refueling India’s Rafale, Mirage 2000 and Western invoice Jaguars, as well as Russian invoice Su-30 MKI, and local invoice Tejas Mk1, while 30 aircraft participated in this year’s exercise. And obviously, everything was done to convince New Delhi of interest in acquiring the European tanker, including by traveling from France to India with 5 Rafales, in a repeat of Indian Rafale deliveries showing, here again, performance. from a pair formed by two devices to power projection over long distances. In fact, the Phoenix is ​​a very versatile aircraft, capable of playing the role of an in-flight refueling tanker with a fuel payload capacity of 110 tonnes, and being used for the transportation of goods or even medical transport, with an evacuation capacity of 130 stretchers, as well as compiling this capacity, while ensuring the refueling of the fighter aircraft in flight, and the transport of the technical team and equipment necessary for the mission.

For New Delhi, the acquisition of new tanker aircraft was a sea snake that began in 2000. EADS (which has since become Airbus) won its first competition in 2009 against Russia’s IL-78, but was scrapped after a year against the backdrop of budget strains, which would relaunched soon after. In 2013, once again, Airbus forced itself with the A330 MRTT, and as before, the contract was never signed and the competition was canceled in 2016 this time over the restructuring of India’s defense efforts after the election of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister in 2014. In 2020, it faced pressing demands of the Indian Air Force to face simultaneously in the west against Pakistan, and in the northeast against China, new consultations started, without actually launching a formal competition. Since then, France has redoubled its efforts to try to convince New Delhi of the performance of the European aircraft which is already in service with 10 air forces, and was also selected twice by the IAF during subsequent competitions, including helping with original business proposals. as a Leasing solution or transforming used A330-200s into MRTT versions to reduce costs.

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