Govt okays ₹8.7k cr military buys
NEW DELHI: The defence ministry on Tuesday gave its go-ahead for the purchase of military equipment worth ₹8,722 crore, including 106 locally-made basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF), to provide a push to the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (self-reliant India campaign), a defence ministry spokesperson said.
Basic trainers figure on the government’s negative import list that seeks to ban the import of 101 types of weapons, systems and ammunition over the next five years.
The ministry’s defence acquisition council (DAC) accorded its acceptance of necessity (AON) for buying 106 Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) aircraft from state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at a meeting chaired by defence minister Rajnath Singh. Under India’s defence procurement rules, AON by the council is the first step towards buying military hardware.
“With HAL having successfully developed HTT-40 prototypes and certification process underway, the DAC approved procurement of 106 basic trainers to address the training requirements of the IAF,” the ministry said in a statement. IAF is expected to order 70 trainers initially, with the remaining 36 to be bought after the operationalisation of the HTT-40 fleet in the force.
This is the first step in a long journey ahead, said Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd), additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies.
“While it’s a thumbs-up for the design and development of the HTT-40, HAL has to rise to the occasion now and produce them to a time schedule that the IAF wants. Work ethics would require a change to do that,” Bahadur said.
The HTT-40 aircraft has undergone a string of elaborate tests at HAL to demonstrate it is safe for rookie pilots and meets the IAF’S standards for trainer planes. HAL could begin the production of the trainers by early next year.
Rookie pilots in IAF go through a three-stage training involving the Pilatus PC-7 MKII planes, Kiran trainers and finally the Hawk advanced jet trainers before they can fly fighter jets. As the Kirans are approaching the end of their service life, some Stage 2 training is being done on the PC-7.
The defence ministry in July 2019 suspended business dealings with Swiss plane maker Pilatus Aircraft Limited for one year for violation of a pre-contract integrity pact in a ₹2,900-crore contract for 75 basic trainers and also factoring in Indian investigations against the planemaker for alleged corruption and irregularities.
The contract with Pilatus included a clause for follow-on purchase of 38 more planes.
The DAC --- India’s apex procurement body --- also cleared the purchase of an upgraded version of the super-rapid gun mount (SRGM) which is fitted as the main gun on board warships, to improve the navy’s firepower, the statement said. This weapon will be supplied by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. “The upgraded version of SRGM has enhanced capability to perform against fast manoeuvring targets like missiles,” the statement said.