The Indian Finance ministry has instructed the Indian Air Force to cancel a contract for six Airbus A330 MRTT tankers after raising objections over the cost of the order.
The concerns are reported to centre around increasing costs of the program and the higher acquisition costs of the MRTT compared to Russian Ilyushin Il-78 tankers previously bought by the IAF.
The IAF has argued that the MRTT is technically far superior to the Il-78 and that the overall operating cost of the MRTT would be competitive with the cheaper aircraft over the life of the program.
