Six Indian Hawk AJTs ready for deployment

The first six Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs), bought by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to train its pilots, have achieved interim acceptance, which means that the IAF agrees that the aircraft meet the standards required to allow instructor pilot and maintenance training to start.

Three of them are presently being used to teach IAF instructor pilots how to use the aircraft for training, at BAE Systems, Warton, in a partnership programme between BAE Systems and the Royal Air Force (RAF). Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) test pilots will be trained later this month.

This is part of the aircrew-training package through which 50 IAF pilots have already undergone training using the Hawk Synthetic Training Facility and RAF Hawks based at RAF Valley.

The three new IAF Hawks will be used to train IAF technicians in the Technical Training Academy at BAE Systems, Warton. These technicians will support and maintain the aircraft when it enters service with the IAF.

The six aircraft are the first of 66 new Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers being built for the IAF; the first 24 jets at the BAE Systems facilities in Brough, East Yorkshire, with flight-testing and customer acceptance taking place at Warton in Lancashire. The remaining 42 aircraft are being manufactured under licence in India, by HAL, based in Bangalore. The first aircraft will be delivered to the IAF in September 2007.