NEW DELHI: The government is understood 10 be negotiating a package deal consisting of about 100 Alpha jet advanced trainers, 60 Mirage 2,000 air superiority aircraft, production line of Alpha jets and point manufacture of indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), with France, according to top sources.

In this concept the on-going visit of Defence Minister Sharad Pawar to Paris assumes significance. Interestingly, no service officer is part of the minister’s party.

The entire purchase deal is likely to cost over Rs 7,000 crore, It is however, understood that the French are amenable to delayed payments and various other concessions given the fact that all purchases are of second-hand equipment. Even if the Alpha jets come relatively cheap, the fact remains that they will be about 10 years old, observed a senior officer,

Nearly 70% of Alpha jets likely to be procured will be erstwhile German Alpha jets. Given the reunification of Germany in 1990 followed by the breakup of the Soviet Union, the German air force (Luftwaffe) has planned a major reduction of its force levels, which has meant retiring of all its Alpha jets by the end of 1992. As the Alpha jet is a joint France-German collaborative project, the French Domier partner is understood to have purchased all German Alpha jets for sales and to augment its own training fleet. While the Larzae engine which powers Alpha jet is made by the French company GRTS, Dassault of Germany it had only designed and built the front and center fuselage section.

With the production line of Alpha jet, which first flew in 1973 and is only used by eight countries, six of which are in Africa, reportedly closed in 1986, India is likely to negotiate its purchase at cheap prices. With most countries around India and the middle east flying the British Hawk, buying of Alpha jet production line may prove counter-productive, as it will have little expert potential” opined an officer.

The other consideration in favor of a British Hawk advanced jet trainer is its compatibility with Jaguar and Hunter aircraft, facilitating maintenance by the air force. The HAL already manufactures Jaguar’s Adour (MK 811) engine under license, The Hawk 60 (worldwide export version) is powered with Adour MK 861 and Hawk 100 and Hawk 200 with Adour MK 87. “It would be easier to manufacture these engines with further collaboration with UK Rolls Royce and Turbomeca,” observed an officer.

As the instrumentation of the present advanced trainer Hunter, which is due to retire soon, and British Hawk are similar, lie problems would have been obtained on handling and maintenance of Hawk by the air crew,

Obviously, the Alpha jet trainer deal is tied to likely purchase of 60 Mirage-2000 aircraft. What has been planned is that the present two squadron fleet (each squadron having 16 aircraft) of air-superiority Mirage -2000 be increased to a four squadron fleet along with war wastage reserves, according to sources. It is yet not clear whether India would be levying for multirole Mirage-2000 aircraft which is more versatile and capable of carrying nuclear payloads.

Moreover, with the prototype of the ALH having been test flown, lie-ups are now being done with the French for joint manufacture of the helicopter. This because, the project’s German technical collaborator MBB, is now part of France-German company Euro copter. While HAL can provide infrastructure facilities and human skills, the French are expected to invest capital in frontline technologies to be fitted in the ALH, according to sources, While the government is certainly motivated by the package deal, and the air force has already given its acceptance of either Alpha jet or Hawk, senior service officers prefer the British Hawk as the advanced jet trainer on, at Ieast, four counts,

First, the flying performance and range of Hawk is better than Alpha jet. Hawk 100 with advanced avionics and weapons systems is a superb ground attack aircraft, The Alpha jet is not cleared to fire air to-air missiles,

Second, while the twin engine Alpha jet in comparison to single engine Hawk is hardly an advantage in small and light machines, the bird-strike problems are more pronounced in Alpha jet given its delicate engine. Moreover, a one minute limitation to warm-up the Alpha jet is a limiting factor on an operational mission,

Third, as.an instructional aircraft Hawk is reported to be superior to Alpha jet as the instructor has complete control from the back seat. And, given the fact that the current Meet of Mirage-2000 aircraft is kept in air-conditioned hangers as its avionics malfunctions beyond ambient temperatures of 35 degrees centigrade, similar problems are likely in the Alpha jet.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 10, 1994