BAE in talks to supply Hawk jets to India

[tariqkhan18]

BAE in talks to supply Hawk jets to India



BAE Systems is in talks with the Indian government to supply up to 60 more Hawk trainer jets to the country’s military in a deal that could be worth up to £500m ($768m).

A deal would probably see Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), the state-run defence company, place an order for the aircraft with the UK-based defence group. This could happen in the next few months, according to industry sources.

India ordered 66 Hawk jets from BAE in 2004 at a cost of about £1bn. Of these, 24 were built by BAE at its Brough plant in the UK’s north-east. The remaining 42 are being manufactured under licence by HAL in India with the first Hawks now in service.

All the aircraft in the follow-up deal would also probably be built by HAL.

BAE has made no secret of its expectations that there could be a follow-on deal. Alan Garwood, BAE group business development director, told the Financial Times: “India is a market in which we see several substantial future business opportunities spanning the air, land, naval and security sectors.

“This includes the potential sale of a further batch of up to 60 additional Hawk training aircraft.”

India became BAE’s seventh core “home” market in 2009, alongside established markets such as the UK, the US and Saudi Arabia.

The Indian government has a strong commitment to national defence with a defence budget of about $24bn in 2008, according to BAE’s latest annual report.

While the government is increasingly committed to developing its own defence industry, it continues to source about 70 per cent of its equipment from foreign suppliers.

BAE is also about to seal a long-awaited armoured vehicle and artillery joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra, the Indian truck maker.

The venture will tap expertise from BAE’s South African Land Systems OMC to produce landmine-resistant armoured patrol vehicles that it considers well-suited to the Indian army’s needs.

The technology – which is based on a V-shaped underbody – was developed in the 1980s during South Africa’s border war with Angola.

The European defence contractor is also seeking shipbuilding opportunities as India’s navy seeks to expand its fleet from its own dockyards rather than buy warships from other navies.

It is in talks with the Indian navy over the introduction of modular shipbuilding techniques, which allow ships to be built quickly and more safely than traditional methods within the confines of a shipyard’s dry dock.

But the biggest prize of all would be a successful bid to supply 126 fighter jets in a $10bn deal to update India’s ageing strike force. BAE is part of a European defence consortium offering the Eurofighter Typhoon.

BAE in talks to supply Hawk jets to India

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[jha]

i doubt they are gonna get the follow up order...too much have happened and HAL was considering to sue BAE imo...

 

[nakodo]

i doubt they are gonna get the follow up order...too much have happened and HAL was considering to sue BAE imo...

too much bad blood to be precise..

http://theasiandefence.blogspot.com/2009/02/iafshortage-of-hawks-hits-pilots.html

IAF:Shortage of Hawks hits pilots’ training

BANGALORE: An insufficient number of Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) has forced the Indian Air Force (IAF) to reduce by half the number of personnel who will train on these recently inducted aircraft. The IAF, which has started using the BAE Systems, designed and developed Hawk AJT at the Air Force Station at Bidar for the third and fourth semesters of its fighter pilot training programme. It was supposed to have 39 direct supply and licence assembled Hawks in its inventory by March 2009. Against this there are just 23 Hawks at Bidar, with some of these being grounded for want of spares, maintenance or quality control issues such as cockpit humidity. The shortage has meant that the IAF that had trained 18 trainees (out of a batch of 38) on the Hawk during their third semester (July–December 2008), and would have liked to train a further 18 (or more) from the current batch, has been forced to cut down the number to just nine (out of 35). This has resulted in more trainees flying the aging Hindustan Aeronautics Limited built, Kiran trainers, forcing the IAF to use an aircraft that is almost at the end of its service life. (A Kiran Mk2 used by the IAF’s aerobatic team crashed near Bidar on January 21 killing its pilot.) The shortage has arisen because of HAL’s inability to hand over 10-11 Hawks by December 2008 and 15 by March 2009, and also due to the non-availability of minor spares. Delay in deliveries HAL has delivered just one aircraft so far, prompting the Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal P.V. Naik, to write to the Ministry of Defence to say that the “delay in deliveries would seriously affect the training schedule on Hawk aircraft.”The letter also says that the delays would “in the long term adversely affect the number of pilots available to operational squadrons of the IAF.” A senior officer told The Hindu that the IAF had managed to reduce aircraft downtime and the spares position was improving. Biggest worry “Though BAE Systems were aware of the tropical conditions the Hawks would operate in, neither they nor the IAF were able to anticipate problems associated with maintenance, workmanship and spares. The IAF has written numerous letters to BAE Systems and they have ensured that these issues will be sorted out. But our biggest worry is numbers.” Officials from HAL admit that the “delivery schedules have slipped by at least six months.”

 

[nakodo]

IAF turns to BAE Systems on HAL delay

IAF turns to BAE Systems on HAL delay

New Delhi: With Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) unlikely to meet its deadline, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has tied up with the original manufacturer to deliver advanced jet trainers (AJT). According to sources, “the IAF will be inking an extended contract with the UK-based BAE Systems for 59 `Hawk’ AJTs.”

“The courses of induction have been planned, based on the number of trainers we have. However, as the number of such courses will be increased next year, it will be increasingly difficult. To avoid this, it has been decided that we buy more from BAE Systems. Out of the 59 machines, 40 trainers will be for IAF and the rest will be used for training in the Indian Navy,” sources in the IAF said on the condition of anonymity.

Sources also added that HAL has been falling back in the indigenous production of the Hawks. Citing the “not good enough technology transfer” as the primary reason for the delay in production at HAL, a senior officer said, “So far we have produced Block I of 34 aircraft and we are falling behind in the production schedule as the technology transferred to HAL is not ‘good enough’.”

However, a BAE company spokesperson told FE , “BAE Systems completed the delivery of all new equipment to HAL as specified, and continues to provide direct support to them on their licence build contract with the government of India . BAE Systems also remains ready to assist HAL in overcoming any new production issues, should they arise’’.

The Hawk Mk-132, designed by BAE Systems, is powered by a Rolls-Royce engine.

Last August, HAL had delivered the first indigenously-built Hawk Mk-132 AJT to the IAF and is contracted to produce 57 additional Hawk advanced jet trainers, under licence from BAE Systems, for the IAF and the Indian Navy.

In 2004, HAL had signed a contract worth Rs 8,000 crore for 66 Hawk trainers from BAE Systems, according to which, BAE Systems would supply 24 Hawks in flyaway condition, with the remaining 42 aircraft to be made under a technology transfer licence in HAL’s Bangalore factory. HAL has invested more than Rs 1,500 crore in the facility, and plans to deliver all the 42 aircraft by 2011. While the airframe and engines would be produced locally for the Hawk trainer, systems such as avionics, radars and controls would be imported from BAE Systems and its partners.

 

[nakodo]

IAF training in a tailspin

IAF training in a tailspin

The recent grounding of IAF's basic trainer – HPT-32 – and the slow delivery of Hawk 132 AJT by HAL have put IAF's training schedules in a tail spin.

September 22, 2009, (Sawf News) - The recent grounding of IAF's basic trainer – HPT-32 – and the slow delivery of Hawk 132 AJT by HAL have put IAF's training schedules in a tail spin.

The IAF recently grounded its 125-strong HPT-32 after another nasty accident that killed two instructor pilots.

Despite being a slow piston engine aircraft with an engine in front of the cockpit to shield the pilots in the case of a crash, the HPT-32 has regularly taken lives with many of the fatal accidents being caused by engine failures after take off. The terrain on either side of the runways at the Air Force Academy in Dundial, Hyderabad, hasn't helped matters.

Since the induction of the aircraft, HAL has struggled with failures of its Lycoming engine and made so many modifications to it that it has completely lost the plot. Lycoming experts, aghast at the number of mods HAL has made, refuse to touch the engine unless HAL first demodifies it completely!

The Air Force has now directly approached a number of overseas manufacturers who produce basic turbo prop trainers with a request for information.

HAL had earlier approached Embraer (for their Tucano), Pilatus (for the PC-21), Raytheon (T-6 Texan), Finmeccanica (M-311), Grob Aircraft Company (G-120TP) and Korea Aerospace Industries (KT-1) for joint development of a turbo prop HPT-32 replacement under its HTT-40 program.

Following the grounding of HPT-32, the IAF is keen to get HAL completely out of the loop.

Even a direct purchase by the IAF will take some time and as a stop gap measure the IAF is looking at creative solutions such as leasing training aircraft or outsourcing its basic training. Another option is to go back to the use of Kiran Mk 1 as basic trainer, something that was experimented and dispensed with earlier.

Matters look equally grim at the other end of the training cycle – the advanced training.

Induction of Hawk 132 AJTs has fallen behind schedule and the fleet at AFS Bidar, AP, where the IAF conducts its advanced training, is plagued with maintenance woes. As a result, IAF training schedules have been disrupted and the service is forced to continue with its old workhorse advanced stage trainer - Kiran Mk 2.

The IAF was to have a combined fleet of 39 direct supply and license assembled Hawks in their inventory by March 2009. HAL delivered the first locally assembled Hawk in August 2008, but has delivered just two mores since then.

One BAE supplied Hawk crashed in Bidar on April 29, 2009 during a formation take off.

As of September 2009, the IAF had just 26 AJTs, 5 of which are grounded for want of spares and maintenance.

The fourth and fifth HAL-assembled Hawks are presently flying and undergoing acceptance testing, the sixth and seventh are on the structural assembly line.

The IAF is skeptical about HAL ability to deliver 21 more Hawks within the next seven months.

IAF and HAL officials attribute poor serviceability of the aircraft to BAE Systems' inability to 'tropicalise' the aircraft. Bidar tends to be hot and dry in summer.

HAL says it's unable to ramp up production of the aircraft because the jigs and fixtures supplied by BAE Systems correspond to the standard Hawk trainer, not the custom Mk. 132 version ordered by the IAF. The mismatch between the drawings for the Mk.132 and the actual jigs and tooling forces HAL to hand craft the modifications causing the delay.

India signed a $1.75 billion contract for the delivery of 66 BAE Systems HAWK Mk132s under the AJT (Advanced Jet Trainer) program in March 2004, after two decades of negotiations.

Under the deal, twenty four aircraft were delivered directly from the UK, with 42 to be license-manufactured in India by HAL by March 2011 from semi and completely knocked down kits - progressively using indigenous components.

Plans were also formulated to purchase a second batch of 57 Hawks, 40 for the IAF and 17 for the Navy. The IAF has since shelved plans to procure 40 additional Hawk, opting instead to re-tender for additional trainers.