‘IAF underutilised transport planes’

The Comptroller and Auditor General has censured the Air Force (IAF) on the procedure of acquisition and operation of the ten C-17 Globemaster transport planes that it had procured from the US in June 2011 for Rs 18,646 crore on numerous counts.

The audit report on the IAF’s transactions, which was laid down in Parliament on Tuesday, also criticised Boeing, the US defence major, for failing to set up simulator services, which had to be operational by July 2013, besides slamming the ground facilities under their offset commitments.

“There was under-utilisation of operational capabilities of C-17 aircraft partially due to non-availability of runway with appropriate pavement classification number and lack of ground equipment in various bases,” the national auditor pointed out.

Noting that IAF acquired C-17 aircraft for high load-carrying capacity with less loading/offloading time as well as to provide direct delivery of load/troops to the operating sector with least number of trips, the CAF expressed surprise that not all units had the required material-handling equipment.

To load and unload cargo, a 13-tonne fork lifter was always being carried in the aircraft, as other units did not have ground-handling equipment.

“This fork lifter occupies 35 per cent of the cargo space leaving limited space for payload. Due to this space restriction, C-17 aircraft had to undertake more than one sortie on the same day to airlift cargo from same destination, on many occasions,” the report said adding that at a cost of Rs 43.19 lakh per flying hour, this was imprudent for the C-17 aircraft.

The report said that the annual average load airlifted by C-17 ranged between 13 tonnes and 18 tonnes per sortie, against the aircraft’s payload capacity of 70 tonnes.

“Thus a costly national asset, procured for carrying heavy loads was not being used as per its capacity. In reply (April 2016), Air HQ accepted the fact of underutilisation of the aircraft and intimated that the point had been brought up to the notice of appropriate authorities,” the report said.

Pointing out at the underutilization of the current VIP fleet, the CAG said significant flying efforts went in training of pilots although for Embraer aircraft and Mi-8 helicopter the training was lower than that prescribed in air force orders, the report said.