Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal PV Naik announced yesterday that the government would soon be putting out a tender for 80 ab-initio trainer airplanes. The six airplanes shown above are understood to be the tentative contenders for the competition. An additional 80-100 are to be of a type (HTT-40) developed and manufactured independently by HAL. HAL has, incidentally, put out its own RFI to all the above airplanes’ manufacturers for a technical assistance/JV tie-up for the indigenous ab-initio trainer that will succeed the highly faulty HPT-32. For now, to the great consternation of the families of a lot of pilot cadets, an Air Vice Marshal of the Indian Air Force is studying the feasibility of conducting a quick stop-gap refurbishment of the HPT-32 fleet to push them for four-five years more.
IAF should get the first 50 made by the OEM and parallelly should do TOT to HAL. That way, even if HAL takes some time to master the technology and start production, IAF will have some trainers in hand to continue.
Also, there is no point in trying to develop an indeginous trainer when there are many options available off the shelf. Why to reinvent the wheel again?
Of the options given, Its better to go for the Tucano. Tucano apart from offering combat training to IAF, can also be used in tackling internal disturbances like naxal menace as well as for patrolling relatively peacefull areas like TN, Srilanka border and A&N and its southern neighbours. What say?
The tucano is a wonderful plane. Go for it, IAF.
is HANSA-3 of NAL can not meet the trainer requirements of IAF? its all composite,lightweight,4 hours endurance,but not a tandem seater…it is exported to australia.
I agree with the rest. We need to go in for the Tucano. It will also help with the insurgencies in the NE and with tech transfer would be ideal.
indigenous insistence over indian lives – business as usual.
from bad grenades to faulty prop trainers to poor body armor – shining india.
Oh No,
India can't stoop this low. This is WW2 tech for gods sake. Don't tell me that the IAF is going to import even a two seater propellor plane.
Surely HAL can build one. Or is it the engine thing again? India does not produce a turboprop engine? I am confident that, apart form the engine, it is well within India's tech and engineering capabilities to build the cockpit and electronics just as the IAF would like.
HANSA-3 is a tandem seater…
"Hansa-3, NAL's two-seater trainer, heads for Australia"
http://www.domain-b.com/aero/20070212_hansa.htm
Venu sir,
What you say is true but it never hurt to develop our own product.. Hell what you say is also true for the LCA project… we have alternatives that are available in the same weight class, but still we are developing our own aircraft.. its just to ensure that the knowledge gained does not go waste and also to learn something…
Just my humble opinoin, sir…
As for the IAF's selection, i pray that we select the tucano…
Venu sir,
Its not to re-invent the wheel.. but to re-engineer the wheel… most air forces use aircraft that are custome built for its spec.. and buying off market we get only the closest thing and not 100% of what we need.. So its always best to develop our own product rather than keep buying from the market… Just my humble opinion…
As for the choice of aircraft… I sincerely hope its the tucano.. considering that it has a decent combat record.. and also that embraer is a company that has dealt with us in past…
The Tucano would be a decent choice, as it is also adaptable for COIN roles against Naxalite domestic insurgents. The Texan II would also be a good option.
Vignesh,
You are right when you said about customization. If it is only about customization, ask the vendor to do it for you. My point is, if you start its development now, it is going to take years before it gets inducted into our forces. More over, there is no point in investing resources on a thing, which doesn't have much. The role of ab-initio trainer is to induce basics of flight to a rookie. It doesn't need any contemperory techonologies in it and anyone around the world will share its technology. Instead try investing your time and resources in the latest techonologies which are currently running. LCA is one such thing and your point that there are many peers of LCA that can be bought off-the-shelf do not hold good. Afterall, you dont need as many triners as you need combat jets. The whole idea is to direct all our effort towards a modern combat jet instead of a not-so-important turbo-prop trainer.
P.S. Dont misunderstand me when I said 'not-so-important', when I say it, I mean to say its scope is very limited.
Regards…
Why not the NAL Hansa-3 ?
Are we talking about ab initio trainers or basic trainers? Diamond da20, cessna 152 etc are ab initio trainers. Ones you posted here are much more powerful primary/ intermediate military trainers. HAL Deepak is ab initio trainer.
The Tucano is much too powerful (and expensive to buy and operate) for a first trainer. Something like the T-6, Hawk or T-50 would do just fine. This is one area where I support Indian buying Russian, since relatively simple technology is involved.
So, we will buy FOREN basic trainer……… I think we are fasttrack on path to become regional superpower.
hasnt HAL HPT 32 engine killed enough pilots?
IAF should have been intelligent enough to predict the date for giving go ahead for the development HPT-40. Had they have shown 'The Required' the pilots would not have got killed and tax payer's money would not have been wasted for buying basic trainers.