Cabinet panel to take up jet trainer issue

The proposal to procure the British-made Advanced Jet Trainer Hawk is likely to come up for clearance at the next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security possibly this week, top defence ministry sources said.

In the wake of reports that the British Aerospace Industry-built Hawk had been rejected even by the British Royal Air Force which was considering buying a trainer built by US firm Lokheed Martin, the government of India had written to the British government seeking clarifications on this issue.

However, in July, British Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt (In whose constituency the plant to build the AJT falls) succeeded in persuading the Blair cabinet to buy the British-made product even though it was more expensive and thought to be less efficient.

At the time the government had written to the British government seeking a clarification on the press reports that had appeared emphasising the British government was about to do a dud deal.

The British Ministry of Defence is understood to have replied to the Indian Ministry of Defence earlier this week explaining that the RAF will indeed procure the Hawk for training purposes. With this last piece of information in place and price negotiations having been completed in February, the decks are now clear for CCS clearance.

India is to buy 66 Hawk AJTs over the next decade. Each aircraft costs anywhere between $ 14 and 18 million. India had sought trainers to be built to their specifications, minus any American components for fear that future sanctions could cripple supply of spares.

India has been trying to acquire the AJT for the last 17 years. Poland and a Czech-US combine had also thrown their hats into the ring, claiming their aircraft would be much cheaper than the Hawk.

The Czech-US group Aero Vodochody which manufactures the L 159 B aircraft and has a substantial US holding by Boeing, had offered India joint partnership, technology transfer and joint marketing for the L-159B and had asserted that its product was 25 to 45 per cent lower than the British Aerospace price for the Hawk.

The government's decision to buy the AJT during this financial year will have two significant implications. It will mean utilisation of the a big chunk of the capital budget of the Air Force within the first half of the calendar year and will ensure a reduction in the return of unutilised funds to the finance ministry.

Also the edge will be taken off the reputation of the MiG 21 as a 'flying coffin'. The number of Indian Air Force pilots who have died flying the MiG in the last ten years because of technical and human errors is in double digit and the families of these flyers have bended together in a kind of trade union to politcially embarrass the government.

The procurement of the AJT is believed to end the agony of the families of flyers.