New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on March 3 got a shot in the arm with the first of the six IL-78 mid-air re-fuellers joining the force making India only the sixth Air Force in the world to have such force multipliers.

The first IL-78 landed at Agra airbase on March 3 from Uzbek capital Tashkent to make newly raised Squadron-78 "nicknamed "battle-cry" operational giving the IAF capability to strike targets as far as 7000 kms with two mid-air refuels.

An IAF spokesman said the second re-fueller would join the Force in April and all the six giant IL-78, each capable of carrying 36 tonne of aviation fuel to a distance of 3,000 kms, would be inducted by the year end.

"The mid-air re-fuellers have already become operational as our air crew and maintenance personnel have been already undergoing training in Uzbekistan," the spokesman Squadron Leader Rajesh Dhingra said.

He said IAF's recently acquired SU-30MKI were already fitted with mid-air re-fueller adaptors and the French Mirage 2000 and Jaguars were being modified to make them compatible with the air-to-air refuelling.

The Air Tankers can boost the SU-30MKI combat range of 3,000 kms three times. The IAF has already had its first experience at mid-air refuelling during the recent first-ever fighter exercises with French Air Force in which the French tankers KC135 refuelled IAF's Mirage 2000 fighters.

PTI