Indian Air Force awards air-to-air refuelling contract to Metrea
April 5, 2025
The Indian MoD signed a contract with Metrea Management on 28 March 2025, for the wet lease of one KC-135 Flight Refuelling Aircraft, with crew and maintenance support, for an initial period of six months. The KC-135 is to be used for providing AAR training to Bharatiya Vayu Sena (IAF, or Indian Air Force) and IN (Indian Navy) pilots. The Metrea KC-135R will be based at Indian Air Force Station Agra in central India. The AAR contract between Metrea and the Indian Air Force is additional to a wet lease contract for an Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) aircraft.
James ‘Slim’ Morgan, Head of Metrea Strategic Mobility said that: “Metrea is honored to be working with the Indian Air Force. Our contract will quickly expand their AAR training capability and will facilitate extensive training, exercise, and movement opportunities to improve IAF readiness.”
Metrea is headquartered in Washington, DC with facilities across the United States, the United Kingdom, and the EU. Metrea is the leading provider of effects-as-a-service to national security partners across multiple domains and over a dozen mission-centric solution areas, including airborne ISR, electronic warfare, secure communications, space-based ISR and advanced simulation as well as aerial refuelling.
The combined Metrea aviation fleet has flown over 130,000 hours, spread across multiple aircraft types, missions, and locations in support of US, UK, and other allied and partner government national security objectives.
As a provider of commercial air-to-air refuelling (AAR) and AAR training, Metrea claims to operate the world’s largest commercial aerial refuelling fleet.
Metrea announced the acquisition of all fourteen Boeing C-135FR and KC-135RG tankers from the Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace (the French Air and Space Force) in July 2024, having previously acquired four former Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) KC-135R Stratotankers. All are equipped with two wing-mounted Multi-Point Refueling System (MPRS) pods which facilitate refueling with probe equipped Navy, Marine Corps and partner nation aircraft.
This 18-aircraft fleet is larger than all but four national military tanker fleets, and allows the company to seamlessly, safely, and professionally integrates into military aviation training and operations.
Metrea already has an existing contract with the US Navy, and supports a growing list of US, allied, and partner air forces. The new contract with India represents additional growth of the commercial AAR market.
