India’s military power depends not only on fighter jets and missiles, but on something far less visible yet absolutely critical — heavy transport aircraft. Today, the Indian Air Force relies primarily on just 11 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft and a shrinking fleet of aging IL-76 transports to move troops, tanks, artillery, helicopters, and emergency relief supplies across vast distances. With C-17 production permanently closed, Russian aircraft facing spare-parts uncertainty, and Chinese platforms strategically unacceptable, India faces a looming heavy airlift gap at the very moment its security commitments are expanding across multiple fronts. In this Strategic Vanguard deep dive, we examine why India’s future military doctrine, disaster response capability, and strategic autonomy may ultimately depend on developing an indigenous heavy transport aircraft, and what such a program would mean for India’s defense industry and geopolitical posture.
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