An Indian Air Force (IAF) An-32, a Soviet-era medium transport aircraft, crash landed at the Bagdogra airport in West Bengal on March 7. The incident comes as the service is looking to replace the ageing aircraft that has been in service for over forty years.
The IAF has confirmed the incident. It announced that the crew managed to eject safely and that the aircraft was being recovered from the site. However, the cause of the crash could not be immediately ascertained, and an investigation has been launched.
The An-32 was developed in the 1970s and has been in service with the IAF since 1982. It has been widely described as an aircraft with nearly unmatched durability and performance in extreme weather environments. The service relies significantly on the An-32 for medevac, air cargo, and para drop-off operations.
Although the An-32 has been described as immensely reliable by all its operators, including India, South Africa, South America, and Ukraine, the aircraft has been involved in some fatal crashes.
India, for one, has lost several of these cargo planes over the years. In 2019, an IAF An-32 with 13 people onboard crashed after losing contact with ground control about 33 minutes after taking off from Jorhat Airport in Assam. The wreckage of the aircraft was found at an elevation of 12,000 feet after a week-long search. There were no survivors.
In 2016, an IAF An-32 cargo aircraft with 29 personnel on board went missing over the Bay of Bengal before crashing into the sea. A large-scale search and rescue operation by aircraft and warships was commenced immediately but yielded no results, and the plane and the personnel on board remained untraced. The debris of the aircraft was traced only last year.
Earlier, in 2009, an IAF An-32 carrying 13 passengers crashed shortly after taking off from Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh, a province near the Chinese border.
In 1990, an An-32 crashed in the Ponmudi Mountain Range while it was en route from Tambaram Air Force Station in Chennai, Tamil Nadu to Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Before that, in 1986, an IAF An-32 on a delivery mission from the former Soviet Union vanished over the Arabian Sea. The aircraft, its three crew members, and its four passengers could not be traced.
There have been similar crash incidents involving An-32 aircraft operated by other countries, including Congo, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Peru. In one particular incident, a Sri Lankan Air Force An-32B chartered from Kazakhstan was shot down during a landing in Jaffna on November 22, 1995, killing all 63 soldiers on board.
India Is Looking For An-32 Replacement
The IAF operates a fleet of 105 An-32 medium tactical military transport aircraft. The aircraft has outstanding takeoff characteristics in hot and high-altitude conditions typical of the LAC (up to 55 °C and 4,500 m elevation).
The aircraft has been the workhorse of supply and transport sorties in the high-altitude Himalayan airfields across India’s northern and northeastern borders, facing China.
The unique over-wing turboprop engines of the An-32 prevent dust and sand from the barren Himalayan deserts in Ladakh, which are thrown up in plumes when the turboprops operate from the paved Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) and airstrips, from getting into the sensitive mechanics because of their high ground clearance.
However, the An-32 is an aging Soviet-era aircraft. These transport aircraft will complete 44 years of service in 2031-32 when their phasing out is planned.
In 2009, India inked a US$400 million deal with Ukraine’s SpetsTechnoExport (STE) to upgrade the entire fleet of AN-32 aircraft and increase their lifespan by 40 years. The upgrade project is woefully behind schedule, as previously explained by the EurAsian Times.
The IAF is now looking to replace the aircraft. In December 2022, the Indian Air Force (IAF) started the search for a successor for the AN-32 cargo planes.
The IAF issued a Request for Information (RFI) to purchase a Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) with a carrying capacity of 18 to 30 tons. The new aircraft will be made in India and replace Soviet-origin An-32 and Il-76.
The IAF requested information from OEMs regarding the extent of technology transfer, ways to improve indigenization and establish a dedicated manufacturing line that includes design, integration, and manufacturing processes in India, the ability to manufacture systems, subsystems, components, and spare parts domestically, and the potential to establish India as a regional or international center for equipment manufacturing and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO).
In the request for information for the MTA, the IAF asked the foreign vendors to provide a general estimate of the cost of aircraft and associated equipment for a batch of 40, 60, and 80 aircraft.
Lockheed Martin has been courting India by offering local production of the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft in a bid to supply Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) to the IAF.
Last year, Lockheed Martin joined hands with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) to manufacture the C-130J Super Hercules tactical airlifter in India. The agreement entails establishing a Maintenance and Repair Facility for the 12 C-130Js presently operated by the IAF and other global Super Hercules fleets.
Among the other firms involved is Embraer Defense & Security, a Brazilian corporation that has teamed up with Mahindra, an Indian company, to produce the C-390 Millennium multi-mission aircraft in India. Additionally, European Airbus Defense and Space is also offering its A-400 M aircraft.
The Embraer C-390 Millennium and the Airbus A-400M “Atlas” were displayed at the 2025 Aero India air show in Bengaluru, India.
The IAF operates 12 Super Hercules for tactical airlifting. Embraer has supplied eight jets to India for VVIP travel and to be used as airborne early warning and control aircraft. This gives Embraer and Lockheed an advantage over Airbus in the deal, which is expected to be huge as the IAF is looking to induct 40-80 aircraft in line with the Indian government’s Make in India initiative.
The advanced An-132 Technology Demonstrator (TD), an upgraded variant with advanced engine avionics, has long been offered to India and other An-32 users. Its signature feature is establishing an entire production line in the client country and a complete Transfer of Technology (TOT). However, it is currently not in the reckoning.
The protracted confrontation with China has highlighted the significance of military transport aircraft. Following the 2020 Galwan conflict, India used its transport fleet to transport more than 68,000 more soldiers, along with around 90 tanks and more than 300 infantry fighting vehicles into the frozen Ladakh region.
The latest An-32 crash might nudge the IAF to expedite its decision on which medium transport aircraft to select.
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