SOURCE: Ajai Shukla | Business-standard.com
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is continuing to develop a made-in-India basic trainer aircraft (BTA), despite Indian Air Force (IAF) attempts to scupper the project. On Monday, a team of top IAF officers will visit Bangalore to discuss with HAL the proposal and roadmap for an Indian trainer, dubbed the Hindustan Turbo Trainer–40 (HTT-40).
Last month, IAF boss, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, had personally targeted the HTT-40. Writing to Defence Minister AK Antony, Browne asked him to scrap the indigenous trainer, and instead buy 106 BTAs from Swiss company, Pilatus.
Already, on May 24, 2012, the IAF had bought 75 Pilatus PC-7 Mark II trainers for Rs 4,000 crore (Swiss Franc 557 million). Browne additionally demanded the purchase of 38 more trainers under an ‘Option Clause’; and then 68 more as ‘Repeat Procurement’. For Pilatus, that means contracts worth Rs 6,000 crore (Swiss Franc 848 million) without further tendering.
And for HAL it would mean an end to the HTT-40, which it has defiantly pursued, even committing Rs 150 crore of internal funds into the project.
Top defence ministry (MoD) decision-makers have serious concerns about the air chief’s request. In end-July Business Standard had revealed serious factual inaccuracies in Browne’s letter to Mr Antony. The IAF chief had argued for scrapping the HTT-40 by claiming that the PC-7 Mark II costs Rs 30 crore, far cheaper than the HTT-40. But his calculations were outdated, since the sliding rupee had raised the cost of each PC-7 Mark II (Swiss Francs 6.09 million) to Rs 40 crore. Today each PC-7 Mark II will cost over Rs 43.6 crore.
Furthermore, the IAF apparently flouted rules by changing some 12 benchmarks between March and October 2009, including parameters relating to pilot safety. These changes brought the PC-7 Mark II into compliance with IAF requirements, eventually winning the contract. The CBI enquiry into the VVIP helicopter purchase from AgustaWestland is centred on how requirements were changed.
On Aug 12, at the launching of INS Vikramaditya in Kochi, Mr Antony had bluntly stated that the HTT-40 project would continue.
Also raising eyebrows within the MoD is the alacrity with which the IAF grounded the HPT-32 trainer after a fatal crash in 2009, creating a pilot training crisis that opened the door for the purchase of the Pilatus PC-7 Mark II.
The HPT-32 was labelled unsafe after 19 pilots were killed in 17 accidents over 23 years of flying, during which the HPT-32 logged 4,00,000 flight hours. That is less than one crash per year on average.
In contrast, the IAF continues to fly the MiG-21, despite a far more horrific safety record. In Jun 2003, then IAF head, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, revealed that 98 MiG-21 crashes had occurred in 5,53,000 sorties between 1994-2003, claiming 43 lives — a record twice as bad as the HPT-32.
MiG fighters have sustained this trend over four decades. According to figures tabled in parliament by Mr Antony, 482 IAF MiGs (of all types) have crashed over the years, killing 171 IAF pilots, 8 other servicemen, and 39 civilians.
Senior MoD officials are now questioning whether the HPT-32 was deliberately grounded to make way for foreign trainers. Grounding the MiG-21 would not have led to import. It would only have increased pressure on the IAF to order the Tejas LCA in larger numbers.
On Jun 25, 2003, when asked why the IAF continued with the MiG-21 despite so many crashes, Air Chief Marshal Krishnaswamy retorted, ‘It is my responsibility to exploit every IAF aircraft to the end of its service life. I can’t just throw out serviceable aircraft, demanding modernisation.’
Today, the IAF is throwing out 110 HPT-32. The majority of them are good to continue till 2018-2024, even if they fly 250 hours per year, a reasonable average for a trainer. More than 2000 IAF pilots — including the IAF chief and his son, a Sukhoi-30MKI pilot — have learned to fly on the HPT-32.
MoD sources confirm that HAL has thrice offered to develop a successor to the HPT-32, but the IAF has stymied each proposal. The HAL Chairman in 1985, Air Marshal LM Katre, who would go on to become IAF chief, fitted a more powerful engine to the HPT-32, creating a new trainer — called HTT-34 — which obtained full certification. But the IAF inexplicably refused to accept it.
In July 1993, HAL again sent the IAF a detailed ‘Project Definition Phase Report’ for a new trainer. The IAF again did not respond. Again, in Feb 2004, HAL submitted a detailed proposal to Air Headquarters. Again there was no response.
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