Last week Defence Minister George Fernandes said his recommendations on the acquisition of Advanced Jet Trainers had been sent to the finance ministry and a decision was expected soon.
But the acquisition drama is all set to resume with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence asking the government to consider the Czech L-159B AJT along with the British Hawk.
The entry of L-159B, manufactured by Aero Vodochody, a Czech aviation company with major US investment and spare-parts, is mysterious, quick and a stunning display of some shrewd marketing.
Till about two years back, the Czech AJT was nowhere in the picture. It appeared suddenly in the scene about a year back with massive newspaper advertisements. And now, it is a serious contender and its presence would further delay the AJT acquisition.
The AJT induction would help reduce pilot error in fighter accidents, according to scientific studies. Over 40 per cent of air crashes in IAF are attributed to pilot error, and it is feasible to bring down this rate if the pilots are trained in supersonic AJTs before they begin flying the single-engine fighters such as MIG-21s.
In 1985 the IAF completed a desk survey of AJTs in the world market. And over the past 18 years, the IAF has issued "Request for Proposals" on three occasions: in 1986, 1992 and 1999.
In 1999 two shortlisted vendors -- British Hawk and Dassault Aviation -- were issued the "Request for Proposals", but only the Hawk manufacturers responded.
In 2001, after negotiations were underway with Hawk manufacturers, the Air Headquarters issued "Request for Information" to five other AJT manufacturers: AMX-T of Embraer, Brazil; MB-339 of Aeramachhi of Italy, Yak 130 and MIG AT of Russia and L-159B of Czech Republic.
After evaluation by the Air Headquarters, only L-159B was found fit. And thus it entered the race.
The government had been negotiating with British Aerospace for their Hawk AJTs since 1999 and was believed to have been on the verge of closing the much-awaited deal.
With the British Hawk, the government's disagreements were over two issues. One was the price, and the second was the supply of US made spare-parts, especially if there are any US sanctions. "But we had almost finished the negotiations," a senior bureaucrat said.
In fact the Price Negotiating Committee had a few days back submitted its report on Hawk, after five years of negotiations.
The committee's recommendation means that the defence ministry and the Air Force headquarters would go yet again into long winding negotiations with both the manufacturers.
The committee said, "Even a lapse of nearly 20 years since the Air Force set about to acquire an AJT, ie in 1985 the government has still not been able to acquire the AJTs for stage-III of fighter pilot training."
The committee headed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Madan Lal Khurana further said, "As both the trainer aircraft, ie British Hawk and Czech L-159B are found to be viable and acceptable to the Indian Air Force, the committee recommends that both options should be considered to ensure that a suitable trainer aircraft is available at the lowest cost to the IAF without any further delay."
The committee said it was distressed with the large number of accidents involving fighter jets and reiterated 'strongly' their earlier recommendation for AJT acquisition at the earliest.
Now with the committee recommending a re-look at the AJT acquisition, the acquisition is sure to be delayed further, while the IAF continues to record its high rate of accidents.
If thinking among some quarters of BJP is anything to go by, the government may not risk taking a decision on the AJT before the next general elections fearing allegations of corruption.
