Pakistan Gets Aerial Refueling: Strategy Page

December 9, 2008: Pakistan has received the first two of four Il-78 aerial refueling aircraft from Ukraine. The Il-78 is a modified Russian Il-76 transport. The tanker version can carry 105 tons of fuel. This will give Pakistan its first aerial refueling capability.

Meanwhile, the pioneer in aerial refueling, and largest practitioner, the U.S., is still trying to select a new aerial tanker. The chief competitors are the U.S. made KC-767, which has already been sold to Italy and Japan this year. The KC-767 is based on the Boeing 767-200 airliner, which sells for about $120 million. The 767 has been in service since 1982, and over 800 have been manufactured so far. Boeing developed the KC-767, at a cost of nearly a billion dollars, on its own. Boeing also developed the original KC-135 tanker in the 1950s, and has since built over 2,000 aerial tankers.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan Gets Aerial Refueling: Strategy Page

Il-78 Tankers Arrive in Pakistan: Defense News

ISLAMABAD - Two Il-78MP Midas tanker aircraft have arrived in Pakistan, apparently the first of four purchased from the Ukraine.
Though the Pakistan Air Force declined to comment, the two aircraft landed at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on Dec. 2, and were clearly visible from the observation lounge in their low-observation-gray PAF livery.

Though it was unusual that the two military aircraft did not land at the nearby Masroor or Faisal air bases, their presence validates November reports in local media about their impending arrival.
But reports that Cobham was to equip Pakistan's Il-78s with refueling pods were incorrect. A Cobham official said at last week's biannual Pakistani defense exhibition, IDEAS2008, that the pods were still the Soviet-designed UPAZs, and that the refueling kits on receiving aircraft, such as the newly upgraded Mirage-IIIs, were likely to be South African in origin.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Il-78 Tankers Arrive in Pakistan: Defense News