NEW DELHI, Sept 3: India on Wednesday cleared a $1.7 billion deal to buy 66 British Aerospace (BAe) Hawk Advance Jet Trainers (AJTs), ending more than two decades of uncertainty over pilot training within its accident-prone airforce.

“The decision fulfils the long-standing needs of the Indian Air Force (IAF),” Defence Secretary Ajay Prasad announced after India’s security cabinet headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee gave the green light to the Hawk deal.

He said India would buy outright 24 Hawk AJTs and build the remaining 42 under BAe licence at the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautical Ltd. (HAL) plant in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

“The delivery of the aircraft will commence after 35 months from signing of the contract with the British firm, and all 66 aircraft are expected to (be with) the IAF within the next six years.

“Until the new aircraft are available to the IAF, the contract will also provide for our pilots to be sent to Britain for training by BAe,” the defence secretary said of the deal that has dragged on since 1982.

Britain welcomed Wednesday’s decision.

“This decision by India to select (the) Hawk aircraft is excellent news for the UK, which follows on from our own recent decision to buy Hawk for the Royal Air Force,” British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said, according to a statement released here.

Mr Prasad said each plane would cost 850 million rupees ($18 million) while the entire package including the training of pilots, raising HAL’s infrastructure and other expenses would be 80 billion rupees ($1.7 billion).

“The induction of the AJT will improve the skill levels of our trainee pilots, graduating from low-speed trainers to advanced high-performance frontline aircraft,” he said.

“Presently such advanced training is being conducted on operational aircraft like Mig-21/FL due to the absence of the AJT,” the defence secretary said.

The decision to purchase the Hawk follows an increasing number of crashes among the airforce’s mainstay Mig-21 fighter aircraft, which have acquired the dubious nickname “flying coffins”.

India, which faced two years of US-led sanctions after it conducted nuclear tests in 1998, is wary of buying critical hardware, especially military equipment, that would make it dependent on the Americans.—AFP