DTN News - IRAQ DEFENSE NEWS: Iraq Interested In Czech L-159 Fighter Planes Says Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas

Defense News: DTN News - IRAQ DEFENSE NEWS: Iraq Interested In Czech L-159 Fighter Planes Says Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources  Prague Daily Monitor
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 8, 2012: Iraq military continues to be interested in the purchase of Czech-made L-159 subsonic fighter planes, Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said after a cabinet meeting today.

Necas said aircraft makers from other countries are of course competing for the contract on the delivery of fighter planes for Iraq, too.

Czech Aero Vodochody company has been negotiating about the deal in Iraq for some time. The L-159's rivals are British Hawk and a supersonic plane offered by Korea in cooperation with the U.S. producer Lockheed Martin.

Czech Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra reported on the latest development of the negotiations with Iraq representatives at the cabinet meeting today.

The next negotiating round is to take place in Bagdad within two weeks, Vondra said.

Iraqi Defence Minister Saadoun Dulaimi assured Vondra during his visit to Prague in January that Iraq keeps being interested in the L-159s.

According to available information, Iraq is first of all interested in new planes made by Aero Vodochody. The Czech Republic would like to sell also the already produced but mothballed planes, however.

Czech representatives point out that these planes may be available practically immediately, unlike new aircraft whose production may take a few years.

The sale of new Czech aircraft to Iraq might be the beginning of long-term cooperation in military aviation between the two countries.

Iraq allegedly plans to buy up to 24 new aircraft.

Czech military pilots currently use 24 L-159s, while 36 of these planes are mothballed. The maintenance of the redundant planes costs about 30 million crowns a year.

Five of the redundant planes were swapped for one CASA C-295 transport aircraft and several of them were used for spare parts or turned into two-seat aircraft. The military is considering further remaking of the unused one-seat L-159s into two-seat test aircraft, media wrote.

 
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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Prague Daily Monitor
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DTN News - INDIA DEFENSE NEWS: Why Indian Pilot Training Is So Dangerous

Defense News: DTN News - INDIA DEFENSE NEWS: Why Indian Pilot Training Is So Dangerous
Analysis: Internationally, a project for one year takes ten fold longer in India. Decisions are taken at a snail pace and time is wasted on unneccessary red tape bureaucracy. Defense procurement system is politically corrupt, as an example urgently needed Hawk Mk132 advanced jet trainers for Indian Air Force, which took 30 odd years to acquire at the cost of hundreds of young Indian Air Force pilots life. India is the largest democratically governed country in the world as is an examplery system for other nations to follow suit, but at the same time the system is a curse with too many voices and noises, NO ACTION. India should have for some period a system of administration similar to China, which is straightfoward with no two way decision making that would benefit for the betterment of the country at large. (DTN Defense-Technology News)
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Strategy Pages
 (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 2,  2012: The Indian defense procurement bureaucracy has struck again. Despite over a decade of pressure from the Indian Air Force to obtain new trainers, new basic flight training aircraft have still not been obtained. As a result, trainee pilots are only getting 25 hours of flight time before going off to train on a specific type of aircraft (fighter, transport, helicopter). These trainees are supposed to get 75 hours before moving up to the advanced trainers and service aircraft. This problem has been building for years.

For example, back in 2009 the Indian Air Force shut down its acrobatics team, so that the aircraft they use (which are basically trainers) could be transferred to pilot flight training units, which were desperately short of flyable trainer aircraft. India's fleet of training aircraft is quite old and increasingly prone to breakdowns and crashes.

India has long put off buying new trainers. There are actually three different trainer aircraft types pilots use during their training. The HPT-32 is used for primary flight training. Intermediate training uses the Kiran Mark II and then the Hawk Jet Trainer is used for advanced training for fighter pilots. After that, the pilots are sent to combat units where they learn how to operate a specific type of combat aircraft. But in 2009, all 116 HPT 32 basic trainers had to be grounded because of age related problems. HPT reliability has gone done even more since then. The HPT 32 entered service three decades ago, and there have been over a hundred serious accidents, killing 23 instructor and trainee pilots. Because of the HPT 32 problems, the 96 Kiran Mk1 intermediate trainers had to increasingly be used for both basic and intermediate training. These aircraft are being worn out, but even then, most pilot trainees are only getting a third of the required hours before being moved along in their flight training.

The air force has finally received permission to buy 75 Pilatus PC 7 single engine turboprop trainers to replace the HPT 32s. While the HPT-32 was designed and manufactured in India, the Swiss Pilatus is seen as a better buy. The PC 7 is a two seat, 2.7 ton aircraft. The instructor sits behind the trainee and both have an ejection seat. Nearly 500 PC 7s have been built in the last three decades and they are used by 24 nations.

India has also had problems with advanced trainers. For a long time, new pilots went straight from propeller driven trainer aircraft to high performance jets like the MiG-21. This was made worse by the fact that the MiG-21 has always been a tricky aircraft to fly. This resulted in a high loss rate from peacetime accidents. The solution to this was a new jet trainer. But it took decades for this proposal to make its way through the defense procurement bureaucracy.

Three years ago, India decided to buy another 40 British Hawk jet trainers. Seven years ago, after two decades of effort, BAE Systems finally sold 66 Hawk jet trainers to India, at a cost of some $25 million each. The delays were caused by the Indian unwillingness to spend the money, plus the efforts of French, Russian, Czech, and American aircraft manufacturers to put forward their own candidates. Finally, the growing number of Indian MiG-21 aircraft lost forced the government to close the deal. The Hawk advanced jet trainers are the most successful Western aircraft of this type, at least in terms of sales (over 900 have been sold). The US Navy uses the Hawk and India felt the Hawk was the most suitable for training MiG-21 pilots. The nine ton aircraft are used to train pilots who will eventually fly jet fighters. The Hawk can also be armed and used for ground attack.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Strategy Pages  
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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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