Indian instructors will train RAF BRITISH PILOTS amid pilot shortage

Defence affairs - Def-Geopolitics

The RAF will use instructors from the Indian air force to train its next generation of pilots.

The“unprecedented” move, announced by Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is part of a defence deal to bring Britain and India closer.

The RAF had faced a pilot shortage since a diversity hiring scheme backfired, with documents earlier this year revealing it needed a “higher number of pilots in training”.

Foreign instructors are often used to train British pilots. However, it is believed this could be the first time since the Second World War’s “Empire Air Training Scheme” that Indian experts have been used to coach RAF crews.

Air Marshal Edward Stringer, a retired fast-jet pilot, welcomed the news. “This is unprecedented. They should have done something like this years ago,” he said, adding: “However, the devil will be in the details.”

Tim Davies, a former RAF fighter pilot instructor, said the Indians would be an “asset” but warned it would take more than a year to get them to British standards.

He added: “This is just a stopgap to make up for the shortfall and loss of talent that the RAF has haemorrhaged over the last few years.

“It’s going to be 18 months before you see any of these instructors coming across.”

Defence chiefs hope the introduction of the foreign instructors will help improve relations and interoperability between Indian and British forces.

The RAF has faced challenges in pilot training in recent years, with delays and backlogs prompting concern among top brass.

The situation has been compounded with issues on the Air Force’s main training jet, the Hawk T2. It has been bedevilled by technical problems which have delayed UK-based jet training and led to the RAF sending “a small number” of student pilots abroad to train.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, who is now the Chief of Defence Staff, previously warned the T2 was outdated, unreliable and should be retired early.

“We don’t get what we need from Hawk today – we get about half of what we should get out of it,” he said.

“Speaking quite frankly, I would like to replace the Hawk T2 as soon as we can, to deliver a more modern, more reliable, greater capacity.”

At the same time, the number of RAF instructors available to teach personnel has proven problematic, sources said.

The Telegraph understands that in December there were 17 qualified flight instructors on the Hawk T2. This figure increased to 23 in July, and is forecast to hit 26 by January with further increases planned, defence insiders say.

Efforts to speed up the time it takes fast-jet pilots to finish their training have also improved from 248 weeks in June 2022 to an “historic norm” of 187 weeks.

Mark Francois, the shadow Armed Forces minister, previously said: “The RAF’s availability of combat pilots has been hit by a perfect storm: including woke manipulation of recruiting practices, the revival of civilian airlines post-Covid and technical issues with training aircraft, particularly engine reliability on the Hawk T2.”