Rookie pilots in the Air Force have been trained on Kiran Mk 1/1A aircraft since 2009 after the grounding of HPT-32 basic trainer fleet. Before the switch, Kiran was used for stage-II training at the IAF academy, Dundigal. Now, IAF has a brand new basic trainer.
But it is in no position to go back to its old training schedule of Stage-I and II flying in the absence of an intermediate jet trainer (IJT), which is being built by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the last 14 years.
As Kirans are slated to be phased out in 2014 with IJT nowhere on the horizon, the Defence Ministry and IAF recently informed a Parliamentary panel they did not have a contingency plan in place for intermediate training. This raises the possibility of having a void in intermediate jet training in the same manner as was seen in the basic training.
HAL now claims it will receive the initial operational clearance (IOC) for IJT by December 2013. But there is no clarity on how long the aviaton major would take to get the subsequent final operational clearance as only the second prototype of IJT is now being produced in a limited series production assembly.
deccanherald
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