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variant of the indigenous Tejas jet to commence in September 2025 ageing Beechcraft T-34C trainers
to the Indian Air Force (IAF). IAF and continue until March 2030. that the service uses now.
plans further orders and wanted
to acquire 97 aircraft of the type. “The HTT-40 is a fully aer- Japan and the United States are
The lightweight multirole 4.5-gen- obatic aircraft, powered by reportedly in discussions to co-de-
eration trainer was among the two a four-bladed turbo-prop velop a new trainer aircraft for
aircraft shortlisted by Malaysia but engine. It is fitted with a the Japan Air Self-Defence Force
lost out to KAI’s FA-50. The Aircraft (JASDF). The proposed new aircraft
Research and Design Centre of state-of-the-art glass cockpit, is likely to be the replacement for
HAL has also designed a basic modern avionics and latest the T-4, a subsonic jet trainer that
trainer aircraft, Hindustan Turbo safety features, including has been in service since 1988.
Trainer Aircraft-40 (HTT-40), based a zero-zero ejection seat,” Although the service is happy with
on the training requirements of the said the MoD. “The trainer the performance of the T-4, offi-
Indian Air Force (IAF). has a maximum speed of 450 cials believe that a new advanced
trainer is essential for training pilots
The HTT-40, which has been kilometres per hour and a on aircraft like the F-35 and the
indigenously designed and devel- maximum service ceiling of next-generation fighter jet (NGF), a
oped by the Aircraft Research and six kilometres.” joint project between Japan, Britain,
Design Centre of HAL, is based and Italy that is expected to enter
on the training requirements of service in 2035.
the IAF. The service had initially In January this year, Taiwan’s
eyed the Pilatus PC-7 Mark II from Aerospace Industrial Development Making an Impact
Switzerland for training its pilots as Corp. (AIDC) announced that it Leonardo’s M-346 is optimised for
well as those of the other services had completed the preliminary advanced military pilot training and
but changed its mind after HAL design phase for its indigenous offers a range of training capa-
developing the HTT-40. The trainer military trainer aircraft. A prototype bilities combined with long-term
aircraft obtained system-level is expected by 2028. The com- reliability. The M-346 is already in
certification in June 2022 and is pany, which has been contracted service with the air forces of Italy,
now awaiting certification from the to develop 45 aircraft for the Singapore, Israel, Poland, Qatar,
Centre for Military Airworthiness Taiwanese Air Force, is awaiting Turkmenistan and Greece. In June
and Certification (CEMILAC). In approval from the service before 2023, Leonardo and Airbus signed
March last year, India’s defence moving to the next phase of devel- a memorandum of understanding
ministry signed a contract with HAL opment. Mass production of the to market the trainer version of
for 70 HTT-40s for the IAF. The trainer aircraft is scheduled for the multi-role aircraft in Europe.
induction of the aircraft is scheduled 2031. The aircraft will replace the According to the two companies,
the European “advanced trainer”
market is expected to amount to
more than 400 new aircraft in the
next 20 years, plus an additional
€12 billion (US$13 billion) for
training services. With the ongo-
ing Russia-Ukraine conflict forcing
European nations to expedite mili-
tary modernization, the M-346 could
find more takers as countries like
Spain and Germany continue to rely
on aging trainer aircraft. To improve
the fighter version of its M-346 jet,
Leonardo is also mounting a 20-mil-
limeter Nexter gun on it.

In November last year, the UAE
Defense Ministry announced that it
had signed a contract with China’s
National Aero-Technology Import
& Export Corporation (CATIC) to

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