The Advanced Jet Trainers ‘Hawk’ from the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) would be delivered to the Indian Air Force in the first quarter of 2008, a top HAL official said on Friday.
“Hawk will be delivered in the first quarter of 2008, around March next year,” A K Saxena, managing director, HAL, told reporters here on the sidelines of a conference of All India Management Association-Madras Management Association.
He said the Indian aeronautics major was developing the Intermediate Jet Trainers used by the IAF for training pilots. “The intermediate jet trainers are going through flight trials. We have to get certification for it, following which it will be inducted into the IAF,” he said.
It would then replace the Kiran’s that is currently being used by the Air Force, he added. Saxena said that HAL was also looking at the export market adding that the company was looking at prospective countries like Chile, Venezuela, Malaysia, Turkey and Mauritius.
The aeronautics company plans to double its advanced helicopter production capacity to about 40-50 per year. “Our order position is quite huge. We are going to upgrade our infrastructure and manpower,” he added.
Saxena said the HAL was looking at joint ventures to infuse capital into the R&D and manufacturing businesses.
HAL was also planning to outsource certain R&D and manufacturing works, he said. “We are interested to get into the civil aviation business.
Currently we are supplying lots of ‘work packages’ to Boeing and Airbus,” Saxena mentioned.
The MD said that infrastructure in the country’s airports need to be augmented and more MROs had to be set up as the aviation sector is currently going through a boom.