Article

2006-08-24 India-Pakistan

Indian Navy may purchase BAE Hawk trainers

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Posted by john 2006-08-24 18:01|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Around 30 Indian navy pilots recently underwent pilot training at US facilities

32 pilots received carrier takeoff-and-landing training on Goshawks at the US Navy's Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida.

Ironic that they will serve on a Russian built aircraft carrier.

India has operated carriers for decades and feels they are more competant at carrier ops than the Russians.

Hence the US training.

It was Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, who convinced Nehru in 1955 to purchase the then uncompleted carrier HMS Hercules.

This quite displeased the Russians...

In 1957, the Russian Defence Minister, Marshal Zhukov, visited India. In Cochin, Rear Admiral RD Katari, the Fleet Commander, invited him to a banquet on board the flagship. In his memoirs, "A Sailor Remembers" he recalls: (Page 83). "From the moment Marshal Zhukov, stepped on board, he virtually impaled me against the centre-line capstan and demanded to know why we were acquiring an aircraft-carrier. Resisting the temptation to tell him that it was none of his business, I tried to explain to him the reasons which induced us to do so, but he could not, or would not, accept them. The discussion was obviously reaching a point of exasperation to both sides but the climax came when Zhukov made the provocative observation that we were buying the carrier at the behest of the British and to please them."

Posted by john 2006-08-24 18:34|| 2006-08-24 18:34|| Front Page Top

#2 I vaguely recall some previous Rantburg posts which discussed the deathtraps currently being used by the Indian Air Force - maybe they were MiG-21s, or regionally-produced copies thereof? It's nice to see them getting modernized, we'll need the Indians on our side when Pakistan goes Islamicist...

Posted by WhiteCollarRedneck 2006-08-24 20:26|| 2006-08-24 20:26|| Front Page Top

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