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The Indian Air Force has urged the government to fast-track a Rs 1,800-crore purchase of trainer aircraft because it does not have an airplane with which to teach its recruits the baby steps of flying.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) cleared the purchase of 75 Swiss-made aircraft, the Pilatus PC-7 Mark II, for Rs 1,800 crore in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on May 10.
But the air force is emphasising the urgency to the government because it does not want the contract and the procurement of the aircraft to go the way of most defence deals that wallow in commercial and bureaucratic delays.
The Pilatus is a basic trainer aircraft that would fill the large void left by the grounding of the Hindustan Piston Trainer (HPT)-32 three years back after successive mishaps that resulted in fatalities of instructors and cadets. The basic trainer aircraft are located at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal near Hyderabad, the institution through which all IAF officers must graduate.
In the absence of the basic trainer aircraft, rookies fly first on a jet, the Kiran Mark II. This, as one officer said, is akin to asking a child to sit for the Class X exam without going through primary school. The IAF has also had to cut down on the number of hours for Stage-1 training.
The Kiran aircraft are also due to be phased out in two years. If the basic and intermediate jet trainers are not available by then, we will have to press the panic button. We do not want to get there, one officer said. In that kind of nightmarish scenario, the IAF will have more fighter aircraft than pilots to fly them.
The acute shortage of Kirans, that was initially meant only for cadets who qualify for the fighter stream, has meant that the IAF has had to pull out the aircraft from its aerobatic display squadron, the Suryakiran. The Kiran is also an old aircraft that was first introduced more than 40 years ago in 1968.
The IAF has told the defence ministry that unless procurement is fast-tracked for the Pilatus to be introduced in the Air Force Academy by the first quarter of 2013, there will be a fundamental gap in the training programme. The Air Force Academy was restructuring its course to introduce flight training on the Pilatus from July next year. The IAF was also keen to send a team of technical staff and would-be instructors to the Pilatus facility in Switzerland in October this year.
In quiet communication with the government the IAF has also told the defence ministry that the crisis has been largely brought about by delays in the production programme of the defence public sector unit Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). HAL was the maker of the HPT-32. HAL has also slipped on scheduled deliveries of its Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT). The IAF had projected a requirement of 200 IJT aircraft.
The IAF is also suspicious about a HAL proposal to make basic trainer aircraft that the public sector outfit is tentatively calling the HTT-40. Given HALs poor record of deliveries, the IAF has suggested that the entire requirement of basic trainer aircraft should be met by the Pilatus.
Indian Air Force has urged the government to fast-track Pilatus PC-7 Mark II purchase | idrw.org
