Black Eagle 90
BANNED
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- Jul 20, 2013
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A war is on in the Indian skies. Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Chairman and Managing Director R K Tyagi are on the warpath over who should supply the Basic Trainer Aircraft (BTA).India is woefully short of training aircraft to turn freshly minted pilots into air warriors. At stake is the critical basic training of around 400 IAF rookie pilots on how to fly fighter planes, at a time air safety reports suggest that 45 per cent of IAF air crashes are due to human erroraround 200 pilots have died in over 500 crashes since 1970.
The IAF chief has also highlighted that several of HAL projects, including the crucially important Light Combat Aircraft for the IAF and the Navy, the Intermediate Jet Trainer, the Light Combat Helicopter, and the Light Utility Helicopter, have been facing severe cost escalation and time overruns running into over three decades in some cases. The public spat of the two chiefs has reached Defence Minister A K Antonys doorstep. No decision has been taken yet on the matter.
In early July, Brown wrote to Antony asking for the foreclosure of HALs turbo BTA project, called the Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 or HTT-40, in favour of the Swiss Pilatus PC-7 Mark II plane. India bought 75 Pilatuses in May 2012 for Rs 31 crore each. Browne reasoned that the HAL plane has been on the drawing board stage since 2005. He argued that the Defence Ministry should hence give the IAF clearance to place a follow-on order for 38 more Pilatus planes at the May 2012 cost. It also sought clearance to place a repeat order for the remaining 68 planes if the need arose. The IAF needs 181 training aircraft. Browne pointed out that several of HAL projects face severe cost escalation and time overruns running into decades.
The HAL has hit back, with sources saying that the IAF has a special affinity for foreign-made goods, despite the public sector undertaking being the prime producer and supplier of nearly 80 per cent of IAFs aircraft fleet, though these planes are licensed to be produced by other aircraft companies such as MiG, Dassault and BAE Systems.
The spat started after HAL stated that it was presented with unrealistic requirements over HTT-40s, while the IAF later diluted the same for the Pilatus. HAL sources have noted that 12 provisions were diluted in the Preliminary Staff Qualitative Requirements (PSQRs) provided to HAL on February 6, 2008 to design and develop trainer aircraft.
IAF issued a global tender to buy 75 of these on December 16, 2009.
IAF-HAL dog fight over trainers - The New Indian Express
I think IAF should show some maturity and try to look towards getting PC-21, Hawks and 150 Rafael directly from its Suppliers rather from HAL, as its not meeting the IAF standards at all.
