BY : PTI

To help its fighter pilots hone their skills ahead of more aircraft carriers joining the fleet, the Navy is setting up a shore-based
training facility (SBTF) in Goa for MiG-29K and Naval LCA aircraft.

This will be the third such mock flight
deck facility in the world, with only the US and Russia having the other two.

The work on the SBTF has already started at the Naval air base INS Hansa, which houses the Navy's fighter squadrons and training squadrons flying the existing fleet of ea Harriers, Navy sources said.

The work on setting up the SBTF with the ski-jump facing the sea-front in INS Hansa has been handed over to Goa Shipyard Limited, a Defence public sector undertaking, through the Bangalore-based Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA).

GSL sources said the SBTF is likely to be completed next year, much ahead of schedule in 2010.

Coinciding with the SBTF getting ready for use by naval fighter pilots for training, India would get the delivery of the first four MiG-29Ks early next year, after a delay of nearly six months from the original deadline of September this year.

The rest 12 of the 16 MiG-29Ks, for which India signed a deal with Russia in January 2004, would come by later next year.