French have 20+(?) Rafales under Operarional CUs for training purposes. May be these are the ones that might be offered. I’ve never heard Mirage 2000H being “India Specific” per se. Kovy/Opit can help us here.

The Mirage-2000H (Hindustan) /TH Trainer Hindustan) IS India specific. The radio altimeter and some other avionics on board the 10 attrition replacement M2ks were not similar to the 42 M2K-H/THs that the IAF had bought in the 80’s. and that meant that the IAF waited till Dassault replaced them with the same standard as the first M2K-H batch.

well, the Frenchies are a cunning bunch !:D

awesome pics !!

Their need for an AF probably has to do with NATO requirements. The aim would be the ability to have 5-6 jets that could be used by NATO in case of any conflict or peace-keeping. I doubt that its anything to do with status or “toys for boys” kind of attitude..even Malaysia is facing a pilot shortage so should they also scrap their AF and invest more in their Coast Guard ??

This is the original report

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=IAF+pilots+train+on+Hawk+AJT+in+Wales&id=91126&category=National

Same word to word..

Flying Officer Sahil

He’s Flying Officer Sahil Gandhi..have interacted with him on Orkut..nice chap. On orkut there is a sizeable number of IAF pilots who’re currently training on the Hawk..and on their community, I’ve read posts by them which talk about IAF Instructors being better than RAF Instructors..in teaching skills that is..and about a couple of RAF Instructors who routinely try to make them look weaker than their RAF counterparts.

why does’nt the RMAF tie up with the IAF to train its pilots anyway ? They are getting their technicians trained at HAL anyway..considering that the IAF has such extensive experience with the Su-30-rather than “storing” the entire MiG-29 fleet, RMAF MiG-29 instructors could convert to the Su-30 and come back to train other pilots. that way, they could train more Fulcrum pilots in the meantime without having to stand-down the entire squadron’s Fulcrums.

so then who’s forcing Pakistan to go ahead with the purchase ? if its such a big deal, then they could well pull out of the deal. Does’nt look like anyone in the Pakistani administration is particularly insulted, the way that you seem to feel.

and the PAF fratricide incident where an F-16 wingman shot down his leader while intercepting Afghan airforce jets.