The Indian government has approved the procurement of 70 HTT-40 Basic Trainer Aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force at a cost of over  6828 crore rupees. 

Ministry of Defence has issued an official release informing about this procurement. According to the release, the aircraft will be supplied over a period of six years.

The Ministry of Defence said, the aircraft will meet the shortage of basic trainer aircraft of IAF for the training of newly inducted pilots. 

Talking about the specification of HTT-40 Basic Trainer Aircraft the official release mentioned that “HTT-40 is a turbo prop aircraft and is designed to have good low speed handling qualities and provide better training effectiveness. This fully aerobatic tandem seat turbo trainer has air-conditioned cockpit, modern avionics, hot re-fueling, running change over and zero-zero ejection seats.”

The statement said that the procurement will include associated equipment and training aids including simulators. 

The official statement highlighted that “being an indigenous solution, the Aircraft is configurable for upgrades to incorporate the futuristic requirements of the Indian Armed Forces.” 

According to the official statement issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) this procurement will provide direct employment to almost 1,500 personnel and indirect employment for more than 3,000 people spread over 100 MSMEs. HAL will engage Indian private industry, MSMEs in its supply chain.

The official release further stated that the acquisition of the HTT-40 provides fillip to the Indian Aerospace Defence ecosystem and boosts efforts towards ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.

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