The recent grounding of IAF's basic trainer – HPT-32 – and the slow delivery of Hawk 132 AJT by HAL have put IAF's training schedules in a tail spin.

September 22, 2009, (Sawf News) - The recent grounding of IAF's basic trainer – HPT-32 – and the slow delivery of Hawk 132 AJT by HAL have put IAF's training schedules in a tail spin.

The IAF recently grounded its 125-strong HPT-32 after another nasty accident that killed two instructor pilots.

Despite being a slow piston engine aircraft with an engine in front of the cockpit to shield the pilots in the case of a crash, the HPT-32 has regularly taken lives with many of the fatal accidents being caused by engine failures after take off. The terrain on either side of the runways at the Air Force Academy in Dundial, Hyderabad, hasn't helped matters.

Since the induction of the aircraft, HAL has struggled with failures of its Lycoming engine and made so many modifications to it that it has completely lost the plot. Lycoming experts, aghast at the number of mods HAL has made, refuse to touch the engine unless HAL first demodifies it completely!

The Air Force has now directly approached a number of overseas manufacturers who produce basic turbo prop trainers with a request for information.

HAL had earlier approached Embraer (for their Tucano), Pilatus (for the PC-21), Raytheon (T-6 Texan), Finmeccanica (M-311), Grob Aircraft Company (G-120TP) and Korea Aerospace Industries (KT-1) for joint development of a turbo prop HPT-32 replacement under its HTT-40 program.

Following the grounding of HPT-32, the IAF is keen to get HAL completely out of the loop.

Even a direct purchase by the IAF will take some time and as a stop gap measure the IAF is looking at creative solutions such as leasing training aircraft or outsourcing its basic training. Another option is to go back to the use of Kiran Mk 1 as basic trainer, something that was experimented and dispensed with earlier.

Matters look equally grim at the other end of the training cycle – the advanced training.

Induction of Hawk 132 AJTs has fallen behind schedule and the fleet at AFS Bidar, AP, where the IAF conducts its advanced training, is plagued with maintenance woes. As a result, IAF training schedules have been disrupted and the service is forced to continue with its old workhorse advanced stage trainer - Kiran Mk 2.

The IAF was to have a combined fleet of 39 direct supply and license assembled Hawks in their inventory by March 2009. HAL delivered the first locally assembled Hawk in August 2008, but has delivered just two mores since then.

One BAE supplied Hawk crashed in Bidar on April 29, 2009 during a formation take off.

As of September 2009, the IAF had just 26 AJTs, 5 of which are grounded for want of spares and maintenance.

The fourth and fifth HAL-assembled Hawks are presently flying and undergoing acceptance testing, the sixth and seventh are on the structural assembly line.

The IAF is skeptical about HAL ability to deliver 21 more Hawks within the next seven months.

IAF and HAL officials attribute poor serviceability of the aircraft to BAE Systems' inability to 'tropicalise' the aircraft. Bidar tends to be hot and dry in summer.

HAL says it's unable to ramp up production of the aircraft because the jigs and fixtures supplied by BAE Systems correspond to the standard Hawk trainer, not the custom Mk. 132 version ordered by the IAF. The mismatch between the drawings for the Mk.132 and the actual jigs and tooling forces HAL to hand craft the modifications causing the delay.

India signed a $1.75 billion contract for the delivery of 66 BAE Systems HAWK Mk132s under the AJT (Advanced Jet Trainer) program in March 2004, after two decades of negotiations.

Under the deal, twenty four aircraft were delivered directly from the UK, with 42 to be license-manufactured in India by HAL by March 2011 from semi and completely knocked down kits - progressively using indigenous components.

Plans were also formulated to purchase a second batch of 57 Hawks, 40 for the IAF and 17 for the Navy. The IAF has since shelved plans to procure 40 additional Hawk, opting instead to re-tender for additional trainers.

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