Indian Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) has cleared the purchase of 38 PC-7 Pilatus basic trainer aircraft for Indian Air Force (IAF) on Sunday.
The original contract was for 75 and had an option clause of buying 50 percent under the same terms and conditions. The option clause in the deal was originally signed in 2012 and is soon to expire in May and hence the council decided to go in for the buying.
IAF has 59 PC-7 so far and has a requirement of 181 basic trainers (BTA) out of which half of them will be made in India and 90 of them will be bought off the shelf.
"Adequate orders will have to be given to HAL to make this a commercially viable project. Also this project will be monitored by a committee that will give periodic reports to DAC," said the source.