Hawk Trainer Delivery Delayed

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The Indian Government has, for the first time, admitted that the delivery of the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers has been delayed. The Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers are currently manufactured by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, under a transfer of technology from BAE Systems of United Kingdom.

The Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju announced, in Parliament on April 22, that the delivery of 42 Hawk-AJT aircraft was scheduled from 2007-2008 to 2010 – 2011 in a phased manner. Three aircraft were to be built from semi-knocked down (SKD) kits, three from completely knocked down (CKD) kits and 36 from raw material phase.

The CKD and SKD kits were assembled on schedule. When production in the raw material phase was taken up, it was found that the equipment supplied by the OEM had various shortcomings. The assembly jigs that were supplied did not meet the requirements, there was a mismatch in the kits/components supplied, there were defects in major assemblies like the wing spar, etc. These problems took time to overcome and hence affected the production schedule at HAL.

HAL has manufactured 12 aircraft till now, three in the year 2008-2009 and nine in the year 2009-2010, including the first aircraft from raw material phase. The Air Force is not facing any acute shortage of trained pilots and the delay in delivery schedule of AJTs by HAL is not affecting the Air Force. The Indian Air Force is meeting its requirement by utilising the existing resources for training of pilots.

The Indian government signed a $1.7 billion contract with BAE Systems in 2004, where 66 Hawks were to be acquired for the Indian Air Force, out of which 24 will be supplied in fly away condition and the remaining 42 to be assembled and license produced at HAL.

A senior HAL official said the cost of a HAL built Hawk is over $20.2 million, while the cost of the trainer aircraft supplied by BAE Systems is around $14.2 million.

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