Posted on 01/27/2008 7:39:38 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
IAF to buy 40 more Hawk trainers
Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on Sun, 01/27/2008 - 07:48. India News
By Gulshan Luthra, IANS
New Delhi : The Indian Air Force (IAF) will buy about 40 more Hawk Advanced Jet trainers (AJTs) from Britain.
Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal F.H. Major told India Strategic defence magazine that IAF's original plan was to induct 122 AJTs but the acquisition got delayed by nearly a quarter of the century, and when the deal was signed in March 2004, it was only for 66 aircraft.
IAF needs more AJTs, and they would be acquired in accordance with the emerging requirements and acquisition of newer medium and air dominance fighters, he said.
India Strategic also quoted naval sources as saying that the Indian Navy was near a decision on whether to buy the same Hawk from the British BAE Systems to maintain commonality with IAF, or the US aircraft carrier trainer Goshawk that Boeing builds in collaboration with BAE. If the decision is in favour of Hawks, then a combined follow-on order for about 60 aircraft would be given to the British firm.
BAE Systems began supplies of Hawk trainers in November 2007, and by February, six of these aircraft should be at their designated home in Bidar, Karnataka, at the IAF Flying Training Establishment (FTE) there.
BAE is to supply 24 Hawks in flyaway condition while 42 are to be made by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) under transfer of technology (ToT). The Navy could however procure some of these jets also in a flyaway condition as it takes up to five years to train a fighter pilot.
The Navy should be expecting its Gorshkov aircraft carrier from Russia in two to three years along with Mig 29K aircraft, and training of the pilots for them has to commence well in time.
The India Strategic report also quotes Air Marshal Satish Inamdar (retd), who had worked on the AJT project, as saying that India could eventually acquire or build at least 200 of the Hawk jets. "They have potential for growth in line with modernisation of the Indian Air Force."
An advance copy of the report, being published in the February edition of the magazine, has been made available to IANS.
It may be noted that IAF suffered several accidents in the late 1970s and early 1980s as fighter pilots graduated from basic jet trainers to the supersonic Mig 21 without intermediary - or Stage III - training. When the then chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal Dilbagh Singh, drew prime minister Indira Gandhi's attention to it, she immediately called for action.
Due to political and bureaucratic delays, their supplies have only begun now.
BAE Systems Managing Director Training Solutions, Mark Parkinson, says the British firm has trained more than 75 pilots as instructors and also 100 engineers.
A company statement quoted him as saying: "We have completed conversion training of experienced IAF Flying Instructors to become instructor pilots on the Indian Hawk - these instructors are returning to India to train the Indian Air Force's next generation of frontline pilots."
BAE Systems has also started the process of transferring technology to HAL for the aircraft's indigenous manufacture in Bangalore.
BAE Systems sold more that US$ 27 billion worth of military hardware and services in 2006.
That aircraft looks similar to an A-4 ...
someone might want to tell them the bulls-eye on the fuselage isn’t a really good idea.
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