Oh, come on! Other than Army the rest two much more indigenous friendly nowadays & they are going to order 70.
Plus the thing was stuck with spins. Let them do enough testings now lest it fucks up later. It's gonna be available in time & trainers won't be imported, that's good enough.
It wasn't ready back then... It is now.
Up and till very recently IAF was still lobbying for a further order of PC7 (38) which would have directly eaten into HTT40 orders, this was AFTER it was proven that their was corruption in original Pilatus deal.
With traitors like these in your ranks it answers the question as to why to this day 3rd gen junk like MiG-21s are flying around killing pilots. Or why IA is happy to order T90 by the hundreds and overlook the far superior Arjun.
If it wasn’t for one man....Parrikar, god knows what would be happening with the outstanding BTA requirement today, another RFI? Repeat order of Pilatus or better yet another outstanding and infilled requirement, the system is totally FKED.
Imagine how much waste and missed opportunities over the decades because of this rot. A nation that can send probes successfully into Mars orbit but can’t make a suitable tank or rifle, that’s what these utter scumbags would want you to believe.
IAF will reject it because the canopy is made in india !
But jokes apart, if HAL takes 4 years to deliver 20 trainers it really is very slow.
HAL also should take some blame. Its a turbo prop trainer, not an advanced jet, yet
they can only produce 5 per year ! That is inexcusable really.
HAL will ramp up production proportional to orders given to them. Can’t expect them to do something that will lead to production ceasing within a couple of years. Total requirement of outstanding BTA in IAF alone is 105 today. If HTT-40 meets requirements they should be given order for 105 from the outset.
Enough of this 15+20+20 BS, only way you get massive industrial capacity is scale. IAF happy to order 75 PC7s from outset but have been proposing just a tiny batch of HTT-40 orders? Scoundrels.
Small scale orders lead to delays, low production rates and more expensive unit costs. It’s the exact strategy you’d employ to sabotage domestic products and incentivise imports- think about that.