BY : vivek raghuvanshi For Defensenews

Even as the first Russian engine arrived in India the first week of June to power the homegrown Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT), the delivery schedule of the trainers to the Indian Air Force is still unclear, as the AL-551 engine has to be flight-tested further in Russia. The delivery of the engines is already behind schedule by more than two years.

A senior official of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), which is developing the homegrown IJT, admitted that the trainer program is behind schedule mainly because of the delay in the supply of the AL-551 engine.The engine developed by Russia's NPO Saturn is still in the certification stage and has to undergo testing on a Russian aircraft, said the HAL official, adding that HAL will receive three AL-551 engines by August, after which IJT's flight trials will begin using the Russian engine. So far, the two prototypes of the IJT are being powered by French-made Snecma Larzac 04H20 engines.

In 2002, India contracted to acquire the AL-551 engine from Russia's NPO Saturn to replace the Larzac, and the first batch of IJTs was to have been delivered by early 2006. However, due to delays in producing the Russian engine, the schedule for 12Limited Series Production IJTs is now revised to 2010.

However, a senior Indian Air Force official said, the Russian engine has yet to be certified by the Russians themselves, and it is not certain if the Indian Air Force (IAF) will get the 12 IJTs by 2010. In addition, the Indian Air Force has ordered another 60 IJTs.

HAL sees its IJT as a cost-effective solution in the $10 million price range. It expects to sell 145 IJTs to the IAF and a further unspecified number to the Indian Navy. The homegrown IJT program was sanctioned by the government in 1999 with an initial budget of $45 million. The plane is meant to replace the Air Force's workhorse HJT-16 Kiran jet trainer.

The Russian engine is a scaled-down version of the AL-31FP that powers the Su-30 MKI combat aircraft. More than 200 engines are to be eventually produced by HAL at the Koraput facility in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

The HAL official said, "The IJT program, which began in 1999, has had one of the fastest design cycles for an Indian-built aircraft- just 42 months from design to rollout."

However, the Indian Air Force official said, the delivery schedule of the IJT is uncertain and no definitive dates can be set as the engines have yet to be certified, and the continued supply of the engines to power the IJTs cannot be guaranteed.