(IndiaToday) : The Indian Air Force (IAF)' s contract to buy 75 basic trainer aircraft for rookie pilots is awaiting final clearance from the cabinet committee of security. The contract will likely go to the Swiss Pilatus PC-7, despite the Korean Aerospace Industries, which fielded its KT-1, crying foul. With the IAF preferring the Pilatus over the KT-1, the Korean contender has requested the government to revisit the contract. The deal is worth one billion dollars.
Korean ambassador to India Kim Joong-Keum recently wrote to defence minister A. K. Antony highlighting the technological merits and long-term cost viability of the trainer compared with the IAF's choice of PC-7. The matter has been taken up at the government level. But defence ministry sources said the Korean side had been told their objections to the deal had little merit.
The IAF urgently needs new basic trainers after the 2009 grounding of its HPT-32 Deepak basic trainers following a spate of crashes. The IAF does not want the signing of the contract delayed as its pilot training programme has already been hampered by Deepak's grounding. Even if the contract is finalised by the end of this year, it will take more than two years for the delivery to begin.
Korean ambassador to India Kim Joong-Keum recently wrote to defence minister A. K. Antony highlighting the technological merits and long-term cost viability of the trainer compared with the IAF's choice of PC-7. The matter has been taken up at the government level. But defence ministry sources said the Korean side had been told their objections to the deal had little merit.
The IAF urgently needs new basic trainers after the 2009 grounding of its HPT-32 Deepak basic trainers following a spate of crashes. The IAF does not want the signing of the contract delayed as its pilot training programme has already been hampered by Deepak's grounding. Even if the contract is finalised by the end of this year, it will take more than two years for the delivery to begin.
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