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14 years on, IAF jet trainer still not ready

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The IJT is entirely surplus to requirements now the IAF has gone for the PC-7 MK.2 and HAWK MK.132. Between these assets coupled with the full-mission simulators the IAF is inducting the IJT adds very little value to the IAF's training regime. As such the IAF aren't all that interested and HAL isn't being pushed in the same way they are on the LCA to deliver results.

They may as well just declare it a Tech demonstration project and leave it at that. Maybe get some pvt players involved and lol beyond the IJT to future trainer projects.

At the same time just abandon the HTT-40 BTT project entirely. It's a complete waste of time now.
 
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The IJT is entirely surplus to requirements now the IAF has gone for the PC-7 MK.2 and HAWK MK.132. Between these assets coupled with the full-mission simulators the IAF is inducting the IJT adds very little value to the IAF's training regime. As such the IAF aren't all that interested and HAL isn't being pushed in the same way they are on the LCA to deliver results.

They may as well just declare it a Tech demonstration project and leave it at that. Maybe get some pvt players involved and lol beyond the IJT to future trainer projects.

At the same time just abandon the HTT-40 BTT project entirely. It's a complete waste of time now.

The IAF is very much eager to get the IJT. While the need may have become less pressing with the availability of state of the art stage 1 and 3 trainers, the need is still there. For one thing the hawks are quite expensive, so offloading the beginning stages of jet training to a cheaper Indian jet trainer makes overall training less costly in the long run. Also helps give more training hours to pilots, without using up the airframe life of the hawks too fast.

BTW, I strongly suspect the motiations behind publishing such an article at this point of time, barely days after HAL announced that the IJT is almost ready, and will be available for production in a year. For the first time in years they were very upbeat about it, and announced that all difficulties had been overcome. That ToI should write this whine-fest precisely at this juncture points to a paid hatchet job.
 
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The IAF is very much eager to get the IJT. While the need may have become less pressing with the availability of state of the art stage 1 and 3 trainers, the need is still there. For one thing the hawks are quite expensive, so offloading the beginning stages of jet training to a cheaper Indian jet trainer makes overall training less costly in the long run. Also helps give more training hours to pilots, without using up the airframe life of the hawks too fast.

BTW, I strongly suspect the motiations behind publishing such an article at this point of time, barely days after HAL announced that the IJT is almost ready, and will be available for production in a year. For the first time in years they were very upbeat about it, and announced that all difficulties had been overcome. That ToI should write this whine-fest precisely at this juncture points to a paid hatchet job.
Mate the TOI is a piece of $hit "news" outlet. I've yet to see a well written or well researched defence piece come out of these fools.

But like I said bro, the IJT is entirely surplus to requirements.

Show me another AF with an advanced BTT and AJT as advanced as the HAWK MK.132 that has an IJT in between these two training stages. There is no such AF. The Hawk is in fact designed to take pilots straight out of a BTT.

The IJT was conceived at a time when both the BTT and AJT deals were in jeopardy and or on hold. Now the situation is very different. The IAF has invested HEAVILY in the AJT- it's in fact by far the largest operator of the Hawk they've also gone with the PC-75 Mk.2 with another 125+ likely to be ordered within the coming few months/years.

More than an IJT HAL should be looking at designing a LIFT, this is last missing peice of the puzzle. HAL could quite easily design a LIFT based on the LCA.

The 4 stage training process currently envisaged:

BTT

IJT

AJT

OCU


Could arguably be bettered:

BTT

AJT

LIFT

OCU


Or go for a 3 stage:

BTT

AJT

OCU


But there's little the IJT really adds that the turbo-prop PC-7 and equally sub-sonic turbofan AJT don't already impart between them.
 
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