NEWS
The $1 billion ( Rs. 4,500 crore) deal to purchase new basic trainers for the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been put on hold after serious allegations surfaced about discrepancies in the procurement process. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is taking a re-look at the selection process following a request from South Korea to investigate concerns about the validity of commercial documents submitted by a Swiss firm that was declared as the lowest bidder. The procurement process has now been slowed down as the MoD as well as the IAF, are scrutinising the selection process. As reported by The Indian Express, Swiss firm Pilatus had emerged as the cheapest, making it the automatic winner of the competition.

VIEWS
The Air Force Academy (AFA) at Hyderabad and the Flying Instructors’ School (FIS) at Tambaram, the two institutions in the IAF operating the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) built HPT-32 piston engine aircraft as the basic trainer since the mid 1990s, were suddenly left without a basic trainer when, following a crash at AFA end July 2009 in which two experienced flying instructors were killed, the Training Command of the IAF decided to ground the entire fleet.

Strangely enough, this was a repeat of the scenario witnessed exactly two decades earlier when the fleet of HAL-built HT-2 basic trainer aircraft had to be grounded permanently when one of the most experienced and professionally capable flying instructors at FIS perished along a trainee flying instructor in a crash that was attributed to structural failure during an aerobatic manoeuvre. In both the situations, after grounding of the basic trainer fleets, the basic training stage i.e. Stage I, was shifted to the HAL-built HJT-16 Kiran jet trainer. However, the situation obtaining in 2009 was different in two ways. In 1989, after grounding of the HT-2, all three stages of training were carried out on Kiran aircraft with Stages I & II on the Mk I and Stage III on Mk II. In 2009, Stage III was being progressively shifted to the Hawk132 advanced jet trainer. But the major difference was that in 2009, the Kiran fleet itself was nearing the end of its total technical life and the fleet was in a badly depleted state.

Shortage of Kiran Mk I aircraft necessitated the induction of the Mk II version into Stage II. Also, as it may take another two years before new induction into the basic trainer fleet can commence, the IAF may have no option but to dismantle the Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team to augment the rapidly dwindling fleet of Kiran aircraft now required for both Stage I and II.

Selection of Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland announced in May this year as the vendor for the supply of 75 PC-7 aircraft off-the-shelf was indeed good news and definitely more than just a light at the end of the tunnel. However, till such time the allegations made by Korean Aerospace regarding irregularities in the procurement process are investigated and the final selection of the vendor is made, the IAF cannot be certain of the time frame in which the new trainer may be inducted. Also, the situation with regard to sourcing the remaining 106 aircraft continues to be hazy at this point in time. While one report indicates that 106 trainer aircraft are to be built by HAL, it does not clearly state whether these would be manufactured under licence from the vendor supplying the first 75. This option would have been most convenient for HAL that has accumulated considerable expertise in the regime of ‘licence manufacture’.