UK offers help for Indian aircraft upgrade programmes

The UK has offered assistance to India in upgrading its Sepecat Jaguar IS/IM/IB combat aircraft and the production of BAE Systems Hawk Mk 132 advanced jet trainers (AJT), the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

According to a statement on 27 November, Quentin Davies, UK Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, told Indian defence officials that the UK was "eager to help" India refurbish the Sepecat Jaguar and "overcome problems" related to the licensed production of the AJT, which is being carried out by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

The Indian MoD is expected to issue a request for proposals to re-engine the Indian Air Force's (IAF's) fleet of 120 Sepecat Jaguars before the end of 2009. Both Rolls-Royce and Honeywell are expected to bid with their Adour Mk 821 and F125IN engines respectively. Earlier this year, both companies announced that they had carried out fitting and integration tests of their prospective powerplants on redundant Jaguar airframes and had demonstrated them in front of IAF representatives.

According to Rolls-Royce, its Mk 821 engine, of a development of the incumbent Adour Mk 811 powerplant, requires no modifications to the aircraft's structure or systems to fit. The Adour engine has been developed by Rolls-Royce Turbomeca and the Mk 871 variant is in licensed production with HAL for India's Hawk AJT. HAL is producing Mk 871 engines at its facility in Bangalore, where it has been manufacturing the Mk 811 engines since 1981.