Pilatus PC-7 deal to be cleared by Cabinet soon
Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Headquarters Training Command, on Friday said the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by the Prime Minister is likely to clear the Rs 1,850-crore Swiss Pilatus PC-7 trainer aircraft deal in its next meeting or the one after that.
The deal would see the Indian Air Force (IAF) acquire 75 Pilatus aircraft to fill the key gap of basic trainers in its fleet.
Answering a question from Deccan Herald, Kukreja said the CCS had not cleared the deal in its previous meeting as there were some objections raised by the Finance branch, adding that the problems were resolved now, putting back on track the IAF’s plan to revive the training for its rookie pilots.
Senior officers said once the deal is cleared the 75 aircraft will be inducted into the IAF by 2015, in a phased manner. Interacting with the media at the Training Headquarters here, Kukreja said the training process is going through constant changes in the IAF as newer technologies are being acquired /procured.
Stating that there is a considerable emphasis on simulator flying, he said almost 30 per cent of the syllabus at the IAF’s Bidar (Hawk training) school is about simulation flying. “The IAF is constantly upgrading its training modules to be on a par with other nations,” he added.
Pointing out that the shortage of personnel that was reported about five years ago was a thing of the past, he said: “Thanks to the aggressive publicity campaign by our personnel branch, we are attracting more people now. The ‘fill rate’ is positive.”
Reacting to a query on Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper’s recent statement on Indian Armed Forces, he said: “There is no foreseeable war in the near future. Not of the conventional kind at least.” The Indian ethos, he said, was not the one with territorial aspirations.
“We are building ourselves to act as a deterrent to any act of violence. And on that front, we are prepared. There is no need to worry,” he said.
