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 Talking
to India Strategic, Mr Enes Park,
Executive Vice President and General Manager marketing,
Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd, said: “The Indian
Air Force (IAF) needs basic trainers, the request
for proposal (RFP) is already out and we are offering
KT-1, the very basic trainer.”
“We understand that the Indian market is really
big and under the CEPA that has been inked between
the two countries, we realize that there is an
opportunity for us to enter the Indian defence
sector by offering our trainers which are not
only cost effective but are suitable for the training
of the new pilots of the IAF,” he said.
The IAF is planning to acquire 75 basic trainer
aircraft, and for which the Ministry of Defence
(MoD) has issued an RFP for several aircraft including
Embraer Tucano, Pilatus PC-7 or PC-9, Raytheon
T-6 Texan, Finmeccanica M-311, Grob G-120TP, EADS
PZL (PZL-130-TC-11 Orik) and Korea Aerospace KT-1.
The Korean firm will bring two aircraft for evaluation.
IAF is procuring these aircraft for replacing
the fleet of its accidentprone HPT-32, which was
grounded after a fatal air crash on July 31 last
year.
“As per the RFP the manufacturer will have to
deliver the first 12 aircraft within 24 months
of the contract. The remaining trainers will follow
in batches. Our production lines are working and
if there is a clause of transferring technology,
we are willing to do that too,” Mr Park added.
KT-1 is a prop-driven basic trainer developed
by Korea in the late 1990s. A dozen of them have
been exported to Indonesia.
“This is the first time we are responding to
an RFP and are aware that there is a niche market
in India,” he said. The company participated for
the first time in the Defence Exhibition that
concluded recently in New Delhi.
With the IAF looking to keep the chosen trainer
in its inventory for at least 30 years the RFP
specifies that the aircraft should have been “recently
certified.” The 75 aircraft are part of the government’s
goahead to the IAF for the acquisition of 181
basic trainers, the process for which is already
on.
“RFPs have been floated for procuring 75 basic
trainer aircraft on multi-vendor basis and 106
aircraft will be built by Hindustan Aeronautics
Limited (HAL),” a defence ministry official said.
HPT-32s, also known as Deepak, were being used
for induction-level flying training for young
pilots at the Air Force Academy in Dindigul, Andhra
Pradesh. A basic propellerdriven trainer, with
two side-by-side seats, it has suffered more than
70 incidents between 1988 and 1995.
A group was constituted to study the aircraft,
which is manufactured by the defence public sector
undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and which
has been in service for three decades.
According to the study, the Avco Lycoming AEIO-540-D4B5
engine in the aircraft has registered more than
100 failures in recent months.
Usually around 140-150 cadets of the flying branch
are trained on the HPT-32 and then they graduate
to the basic flight and weapons training jet aircraft,
Surya Kiran, which has had an excellent record.
At present, to ensure uninterrupted training
requirements of the young pilots, Kiran Mk I/IA
trainer aircraft are being used to impart stage
I and stage II training to trainee pilots.
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