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India’s quest for a basic trainer aircraft will be achieved soon as the shortlisting of the manufacturer will take place by September 2011 and the deliveries for the aircraft are expected to commence by 2012.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) had grounded its entire fleet of HPT-32 Deepak basic trainer aircraft owing to a series of crashes in mid-2009. The Indian Defence Ministry issued a request for proposal (RFP) to a dozen global aircraft manufacturers and the contenders included Grob’s G-120 TP, Embraer’s EMB-312 Super Tucano, Korea Aerospace Industries’ KT-1, Finmeccanica’s M-311 and Pilatus’ PC-7.
Currently, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is assessing the flight trials of the contenders and the contract will be awarded by the last quarter of this year. The IAF aims to procure 75 aircraft off the shelf and over 100 aircraft will be built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under a joint venture agreement. The deal is estimated to cost $1 billion. With the IAF looking to keep the chosen trainer in its inventory for at least 30 years, the RFP specifies that the aircraft should have been recently certified.
Among the contenders, the German Grob-120TP seemed quite optimistic about grabbing the contract. It claimed to be the world’s lightest trainer with ejection seats for both pilots. The Grob-120TP’s digital glass cockpit allows trainee pilots to fly mission-specific sorties that were only possible earlier in advanced trainers. Grob had even claimed it is much cheaper to purchase and maintain than the others in the fray.
The IAF has been finding it hard to train its pilots ever since the grounding of the entire fleet of HPT-32 trainers. According to sources, an entire batch of Indian Air Force (IAF) trainee pilots graduated without the basic 24-week training on the HPT-32 Deepak piston engine aircraft. Instead, the pilots are proceeding to Stage-2 training on Hawk advanced jet trainers and HJT-16 Kiran trainers. However, lack of training on the basic trainer aircraft could hamper their ability to fly modern and faster jets of the IAF.
Meanwhile, it is also speculated that Brazil’s Embraer S.A. may develop a basic turboprop trainer aircraft jointly with India to meet potential demand from the air forces in both nations. Brazilian air force currently has between 100 and 150 Tucano turboprop trainer aircraft which will need to be upgraded or replaced with a new trainer aircraft by 2018. Hence, Embraer feels that there is a scope to co-develop and co-produce a basic trainer. India and Brazil can probably spend the money equally and produce about 100-150 planes each.
On the other hand, the induction of advanced jet trainers into IAF is also consuming time and money due to its lengthy process. While indigenous efforts like HAL’s Ajeet aircraft that did not materialize, India’s deal with BAE Systems for Hawk advanced jet trainers had been finalized. The 66-plane order was worth about $1.2 billion. The first 24 Hawk Mk.132 AJTs have already been delivered by BAE and the other 42 will be license-manufactured by HAL in India, who is behind on the delivery schedule.
Article courtesy of DefenceNow.com
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