The Hindu Business Line : IAF gets first HAL-made Hawk advanced trainer

Hawk is here: The Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal F.H. Major (left), and the HAL Chairman, Mr Ashok K. Baweja, holding a model of Hawk Mk 132 - Advanced Jet Trainer at the handing over of first HAL-built Hawk 132 aircraft in Bangalore on Thursday.

Our Bureau

Bangalore, Aug. 14 Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd on Thursday handed over the first of 42 Hawk advanced jet trainers (AJT) that it is licence-building for the IAF.

The remaining 41 AJTs will be delivered by 2011, HAL’s Chairman, Mr Ashok Baweja, said during the handing-over ceremony preceded by a 10-minute flight show.

Mr Baweja said the defence PSU would totally produce 100 Hawks over the next six years, including an additional order of 57 for the IAF and the Navy. It would deliver the first 10 aircraft in the second year of the Hawk programme.

The Hawks are part of the Rs 8,000-crore purchase contract for 66 AJTs the Ministry of Defence signed in 2004 with BAE Systems, UK. The production is split between HAL and BAE; BAE is to supply 24 directly to IAF and flew in the first lot in February to the Bidar Air Base.

The jet trainer, purchased after several years of planning and deliberations, is to replace the old Russian MiG-21s in phases. An estimated 100 MiGs have crashed in the past decade killing 180 trainee pilots, and the IAF has been seeking another level of Hawk-like transit aircraft for its pilots to train on.

Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, who formally received the aircraft, said, “The induction of the lead-in AJTs into our ongoing training course at Bidar [air base] will smoothen the process of transition of our pilots from trainers to frontline fighters; from subsonic to supersonic speed.”

Since February, the IAF has been training its pilots in batches of 20 each on the BAE-built Hawks. The Air Chief Marshal admitted that the remaining BAE-built aircraft due in July were now scheduled to arrive by the end of December. With deliveries of more AJTs from HAL and BAE, the IAF could train 40 pilots at a time.

“We are eager to receive the HAL-made Hawks at regular intervals. We look forward to an uninterrupted supply to improve our training pattern,” he said.

INDIA LRU FACILITY PLAN

Mr Ashok Nayak, Managing Director of HAL’s production hub, the Bangalore Complex, said the Hawk aircraft involves over 52,000 components and some 351 LRUs or accessories that have to be serviced by 55 foreign vendors.

HAL was in touch with them to set up an India repair and overhaul facility, estimated at Rs 500 crore, in Bangalore. This would ensure third and fourth line service for components for the programme through the next decades. The proposal is before the IAF.

Some 80 per cent of the production is outsourced to the private sector and HAL has lined up almost 25 vendors in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai and supplied the raw materials to them, he told Business Line.

Mr Baweja said HAL was readying the third prototype of its IJT (intermediate jet trainer) for flight in March 2009. The first series production of the IJT with Russian engines will begin and be delivered next year, he said.

Apart from providing advanced training, the Hawk Mk132, powered by a single Rolls-Royce Adour Mk871 turbo fan engine, can also be weaponised for combat.

The Hawks are being made at the Aircraft Division, Bangalore. The engines come from the Engine Division in Bangalore; the avionics from Hyderabad and Korwa divisions. The components, airframe and flight testing are also done at Bangalore. BAE has provided the fuselage, kits, equipped the wing, accessories and materials.

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