M A I N   N E W S

IAF to get new trainer aircraft
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 10
Ending years of shortage for a basis training aircraft for young trainee pilots of the Indian Air Force, the Cabinet Committee on Security tonight cleared a major deal of $700 million (approximately Rs 2,900 crore) to buy 75 single-engined aircraft from Swiss company Pilatus.

The company will be selling its Pilatus PC-7 Mk-II turboprop aircraft in a twin-seat configuration which will allow a trainer to guide the rookie pilots. These are piston engined and fly at low speeds, allowing the rookie pilots to get a feel of flying as they graduate to the second level of training and then onwards to the fighters. Without the basic trainer, IAF rookie pilots were being sent straightaway to the second stage of training on the Kiran-Mk II aircraft.

The lack of a basic trainer since 2009 has seriously hit the pilot training programme. Although the Swiss company was shortlisted last year, a competing Korean aircraft maker Korean Aerospace Industries, which lost the contract, protested. It had pitched in with its KT-1 trainer.