The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Thursday cleared the purchase of 75 basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF). The IAF has been suffering from a crippling shortage of trainers since 2009, when its old basic trainer was grounded after a series of accidents that claimed 19 lives.
A senior official said the deal for the purchase of 75 Pilatus PC-7 Mk-II aircraft from Switzerland would cost around Rs 3,000 crore.
The decision comes in the face of “critical deficiency” in trainer aircraft – pointed out by the parliamentary standing committee on defence recently – and IAF’s desperate need to initiate its cadets into flying with basic trainers.
Since July 2009, the IAF has been adopting an ad hoc method of teaching flying, initiating cadets into flying directly with intermediate trainer jet Kiran. Its basic trainer HPT-32 Deepak has been involved in at least 17 crashes killing 19 pilots, forcing the air force to ground the fleet in 2009.
The CCS decision comes a few days after the parliamentary standing committee pointed out that IAF had just 255 trainers (basic, intermediate and advanced), instead of the 434 that had been inducted into service.
The number of basic trainers purchased from Swiss firm Pilatus could further go up since the IAF has a requirement of 181 trainers. Under the present deal, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited will produce 145 of these trainers under licence.
The Swiss firm emerged as the L1 (lowest bidder) in the competition several months ago, but the deal was stalled after Korean Aerospace Industries, which had fielded the KT-1 trainer, put up a strong fight, saying the Pilatus selection was flawed.
The Koreans alleged the Swiss proposal was incomplete and thus a violation of the procurement procedure. Both the Korean defence minister and ambassador to India wrote protest letters to the Indian government, besides the firm carrying out an aggressive media campaign against the Pilatus.
The first basic trainer would be inducted 15 months after the contract is signed, sources said. The Swiss are selling the aircraft under the condition that they would never be armed.
