The Hindu : National : Training on Hawks for IAF pilots

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 16, 2004

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National

Training on Hawks for IAF pilots

By Our Special Correspondent

Commander Mark Durkin, on the deck of HMS Exeter. In the background is RFA Grey Rover, an auxiliary fleet tanker. - Photo: V. Ganesan

CHENNAI, APRIL 15. The first batch of 25 Indian Air Force pilots will visit the United Kingdom in June end to train on the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers. The Royal Air Force will train three batches of 25 pilots each over the next three years, said Nicholas B. Spiller, Naval and Air Adviser, British High Commission in India.

India will receive 66 Hawk AJTs from the United Kingdom. The training of each batch will last about six months. It includes 120 hours of hands on flying and also simulation. "This is part of the Hawk deal," said Group Captain Spiller.

He was answering questions on board the HMS Exeter, a guided missile destroyer that docked here today ahead of exercises with the Indian Navy.

From April 17 to 19, the British warships, HMS Exeter and RFA Grey Rover, will take part in the exercises with vessels from the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet. The exercises will be held off the Chennai coast.

"The ships are here to demonstrate the British Government's continuing commitment to security and stability of the Indian Ocean and Asia — Pacific regions," said Mark Durkin, Commanding Officer, HMS Exeter. This is the first warship to visit Chennai since 1997.

The exercises, named "Konkan," are a prelude to bigger exercises.

Group Captain Spiller said the details of a `big' joint naval exercise and the preliminary discussions on establishing a joint force headquarters would figure in the next meeting of the Indo-U.K. Defence Consultative Group (DCG). The meeting will be held in New Delhi in "the next two weeks."

The Group, established in 1995, meets annually [the venue alternates between New Delhi and London] to facilitate mutual understanding of strategic and security interests, cooperation between the armed forces through training and institutionalised interaction as well as cooperation between the defence industries.

During the last Indo-U.K. Defence Consultative Group Meeting at London in June 2003, the British side had proposed a number of operationally related training activities between the two Armed Forces. These and other events will provide Armed Forces of both countries an opportunity to understand each other's operating procedures, while bilateral defence cooperation.

Group Captain Spiller said the major exercises, planned for 2006, would certainly involve aircraft carriers.

The other major item on the DCG agenda was the setting up of a joint headquarters. There would not be any real time troops or aircraft or naval warships that would be controlled from the headquarters; it would rather function "with about a hundred personnel" on joint deployment strategies.

The headquarters was likely to be established in Hyderabad or Bangalore, he added.

Britain had a long history and experience in joint deployments and this experience would be an asset for India. "This would enable us to operate together in the future."

This would be ideal in United Nations peacekeeping operations. The planning for this was still in the preliminary stages and a great deal of work had to be done, he added.

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