India has inked a deal with BAE Systems for 66 Hawk jets, 24 of which will be delivered off the shelf while the rest will made under licence by HAL.
RAF VALLEY (Wales): As the strains of a Bhangra reverberate through the operations room of this British airbase, Wing Commander Gary Kelly displays a video that features Indian Air Force pilots showing their skills on Hawk jet trainers.
Thirty-nine IAF pilots have already graduated from the facility and 17 more are currently being put through their paces as part of the largest foreign air force training programme by the RAF in recent years.
Under the watchful eyes of British instructors, the Indian pilots have mastered the intricacies of combat missions ahead of the delivery of 24 Hawk trainers by BAE Systems to the IAF.
“Our mission is to train the RAF’s combat pilots of the future and for the past 18 months, we have also been training Indian pilots,” said Kelly, to whose 208 Squadron the IAF pilots are attached for training.
Valley is one of the busiest training bases of the Royal Air Force and the Indian pilots fly dozens of sorties every week in the intensely cold and rainy weather conditions prevailing in the Wales.
They are trained for instrument flying in adverse weather, low level navigation and night flying. They also spend a night in the craggy Welsh Hills to hone their survival skills in the event of a crash, Kelly told a group of visiting Indian journalists.
India has inked a deal with BAE Systems for 66 Hawk jets, 24 of which will be delivered off the shelf while the rest will made under license by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
The initial batches of Indian pilots sent to RAF Valley faced various problems — largely due to language and the food, especially the lack of vegetarian fare — but newer trainees have been able to fit in well with their British counterparts, said Wing Commander Pankaj Sinha, the IAF officer coordinating the training programme.
“They have realised our pilots are as good as those in any part of the world and can take on the best,” he said. The RAF’s “chop rate” or failure level among trainee pilots being very high, five IAF pilots did not graduate at Valley.
In addition to the actual flying missions, the IAF pilots put in up to 63 hours on simulators equipped with high-definition satellite and aerial imagery.
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