Of Trainers, Tatra and much more….in Parliament

Posted by- Neelam Mathews

Aug 28, 2012

Defense Minister replies to questions in Parliament on-

TRAINER AIRCRAFT IN IAF

The HPT-32 aircraft being used as Basic Trainer Aircraft since 1986 were grounded in July 2009 due to safety reasons. Thereafter, the basic training has been shifted to Kiran Mk 1/1A aircraft earlier utilized for Intermediate training A contract for procurement of 75 Basic Trainer Aircraft was signed with Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, Switzerland on 24^th May 2012. The procurement of the Basic Trainer Aircraft was processed through a multi-vendor procurement as per DPP-2008 and the Swiss company, Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, emerged as the L1 vendor. The delivery of these 75 aircraft is scheduled from February 2013 to August 2015

TATRA TRUCKS DEAL

The matter is under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). It has also registered a regular case, on 30.3.2012, against one of the owners and unknown persons of a UK based company, unknown officials of a Defense Public Sector Undertaking and unknown Officers of Ministry of Defense and Indian Army. Ministry of Defense has purchased 6477 Tatra Trucks between 1987-1988 to 2010-2011.

AIRCRAFT BY HAL

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has not supplied any pioletless combat aircraft to the Indian Air Force recently.  Other aircraft being manufactured by HAL are SU-30 MKI, HAWK- AJT (Advanced Jet Trainer), Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv), Dornier 228, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA-Tejas) and IJT (Intermediate Jet Trainer).

CRISIS OF ORDERS IN ORDNANCE FACTORIES

There is no crisis over the ordnance factories due to awarding of contracts for defense equipment to the private sector.  Procurement of defense equipment is done from various indigenous as well as foreign sources.

Equipment has been imported from countries -Russia, US, Israel, France, UK, Germany, Poland, Singapore etc. Value of imports during 2008-2009 till 2010-2011 is indicated below:-

Year	Rupees in crores
2008-2009	10,184.95
2009-2010	13,411.91
2010-2011	15,443.01

TRAINING - PILOTS

  Acquisition of new platforms is part of the modernisation and upgradation of Indian Air Force's capabilities. The new combat aircraft would be manned by pilots of the existing older fleet, which are planned for replacement by the new aircraft.

Simulators for different trainer aircrafts like Advanced Jet Trainer, Intermediate Jet Trainer, Basic Jet Trainer, Kiran MK l/ll, HPT-32 have been contracted.