HAL, Israel Aerospace tie up to turn civil aircraft into mid-air refuellers

Under the new MoU, "HAL will convert pre-owned civil passenger aircraft into air refuelling aircraft with cargo and transport capabilities," the IAF said.

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) announced on Wednesday the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to convert civil passenger aircraft to “multi mission tanker transport” (MMTT) aircraft in India.

For the past decade-and-a-half, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been trying to buy six MMTT aircraft to supplement its eight obsolescent Russian Illyushin-78 refuellers. So dire is the IAF’s shortfall of refuellers that, to fly in its new Rafale fighters from France, it had to ask Paris for Airbus refullers to top up the Rafales’ fuel tanks over the Mediterranean Sea.

In two abortive procurement attempts in the