Indian Air Force (IAF): News

DRDO chief Dr. Samir V Kamat confirms the trials and testing of Rudram-2 series of hypersonic air to surface missiles. The max range of Rudram -2 is 300km and top speed is Mach 5.5

The Indian Air Force received the first Airbus C295MW military transport aircraft




https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4750767.html

Mi-26 helicopters of the IAF will undergo a major overhaul with Russian assistance

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/grounded-for-years-iaf-set-to-overhaul-mi-26-copters-at-chandigarh-airbase-with-russian-assistance-567798

This is a very sophisticated prototype with serpentine air intake, fluidic thrust vector control, tailless design and full ATOL capability.

If such a UCAV is fielded by India on the India-China border a larger portion of the advantage that China currently enjoys by virtue of deploying the J-20 stealth fighter will be eroded.

After checking some info related to the MiG -UTS intermediate trainer and to the Indian HAL HJT-36 Sitara, a single engine intermediate jet  trainer powered by the Saturn AL-55 and similar in size to the L39, to the Mig-UTS and to the M345, I read that they are also working on the HAL HLFT-42 (Hindustan Lead-in Fighter Trainer – 42).

Apparently this is a single engine supersonic  fighter trainer currently under development by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. 

Designed as a next-generation supersonic trainer jet, serving as an advanced trainer for upcoming HAL Tejas Mk2 and HAL AMCA, to replace the british hawk, now in service in india as advanced trainer.

What I can't understand is why India is making a single engine trainer so big and heavy.
I understand  that they want to have it be available also as a fully fledged fighter jet, but would probably only complicate the requirements and make it too expensive as a trainer. Furthermore they have no duel engine trainer.

This proposed trainer is much larger and heavier than the chino-pakistani JF-17 fighter jet and almost as big as an F-16. Does it make sense?

Note: the Su-75 Checkmate is also planned to have a max takeoff weight of about 18 tons...

Crew: 2
Length: 52 ft 6 in (16 m)
Wingspan: 29 ft 6 in (9 m)
Height: 15 ft 1 in (4.6 m)
Max takeoff weight: 36,376 lb
 (16,500 kg)

If it continues like that India later will possibly sober up and either ask licence production of Yak-130 or buy the M346 from Italy (provided that they at least manage to get the Hal Sitara intermediate trainer in serial production).

They are mixing up requirements for different types of aircrafts. 

At the end it will end up being too expensive as a trainer and the intermediate trainers like the Sitara, the M345 or the MiG-UTS are not made to be ideal for Lead-in fighter training, which requires to be able emulate operational fighter planes, in order to provide efficient training in combat scenarios.

So using advanced trainers like Yak-130 or M-346 allow to reduce training costs compared to moving straight to operational conversion.

But if the advanced trainer is already an aircraft with size and capabilities (and production and operating costs) similar to an F-16, this defeats the purpose.

Furthermore India has also a large fleet of twin engine fighters.

Have to agree with you, though in a sense this aircraft would become a non stealthy aircraft below the Tegas so it would be an expensive LIFT, it might be a cheap light fighter in comparison.

I agree with your view that twin engined makes more sense even if most of their fighters were not twin engined aircraft an important part of training is managing a multi engined aircraft... things like emergency engine shutdowns and restarts etc.

Maybe they should be looking at the SR-10... but cheap light and simple should be the focus when looking at training aircraft, because you want them to be cheap and simple enough to use in flying clubs where possible, which is why the Yak-52 was so popular, and as the population become more affluent over time the L39 was used as a civilian private jet too.

It is good to learn from experience but the genius learns from the experience of others and avoids mistakes rather than trying to learn from them after making them.

Indian Air Force to purchase $650 million worth of new engines for Mig 29.

They didn't mention which new engines are these.