Online BusinessHAL offers trainer aircraft to resolve IAF crisis
Not since the dark decade of the 1990s, when the Indian Air Force crashed 177 aircraft — losing 54 young pilots and some Rs 1,000 crore worth of equipment — has the air force faced such a pilot training crisis. The long-delayed Hawk trainers, which began arriving in India in 2007, have improved advanced training for IAF flyers. But the crucial introduction to flying, conducted in antiquated HPT-32 Deepak and HJT-16 Kiran aircraft, is taking a growing toll on pilots’ lives.
On July 31, after two senior flying instructors from the Air Force Academy near Hyderabad, died in a crash, the IAF halted all “Stage-1” training, which is done on Deepaks. Chronically prone to engine failure (100 engine emergencies reported in recent years), 10 Deepak trainers have crashed this last decade. A recent CAG report has slammed the aircraft as “technologically outdated and beset by flight safety hazards”.
Says the HAL chairman: “The IJT project has demonstrated HAL’s capability to design, build and deliver trainer aircraft on time. We will deliver the IAF’s current order of 12 IJTs by the end of next year.”
If the HTT-40 enters service as a Stage-1 trainer, the entire spectrum of fighter training for IAF pilots will be conducted on HAL-built aircraft. After Stage-1 training on the HTT-40, Stage-2 will be conducted on the Sitara IJT; Stage-3 training will be done on the Hawk advanced jet trainer, now being produced in HAL Bangalore, under Transfer of Technology from BAE Systems, UK.
Meanwhile, HAL is pushing the concept of Phase-4 training on a supersonic fighter: it’s newly-developed twin-seater Light Combat Aircraft. So far, the IAF hasn’t bought the idea.