The Indian Air Force (IAF) has completed trails of five aircraft shortlisted for the basic trainer contract and the evaluation report is expected to be submitted to the MoD by the end of December or early January. The five aircraft which participated in the trials are the American Hawker Beechcraft T-6C, the Pilatus PC-7 MkII, the Korean Aerospace Industries KT-1, EADS PZL-130 Orlik TC-II from Poland and Grob 120TP from Germany.
The trails were conducted at the Jamnagar Air Base in Gujarat and included flights by the IAF instructor-pilots for a period of five days each till the end of October. The acquisition of the basic trainer aircraft is an urgent procurement to make up the grounding of the HPT-32 Deepak basic trainers manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). A total of 75 aircraft are to be procured from abroad.
The trainer aircraft procurement process started only during the first quarter of this year and bids were submitted by seven aircraft manufacturers in response to an RFI. The final five which participated in the trails were downselected and an RFP issued to them. The IAF expects to start receiving the aircraft within six months of the award of contract.
http://www.bharatrakshak.com/NEWS/newsrf.php?newsid=13978
Subject: Indian Air Force completes trails of basic trainer aircraft 
Mon Dec 13, 2010 4:54 pm