India approves procurement of 106 new indigenous HTT-40 trainer aircraft

The HAL HTT-40 turboprop trainer aircraft. 

The Indian Ministry of Defence (MOD) Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved the plan to acquire an initial order of 70 new Hindustan Turbo Trainer 40 (HTT-40) from Indian aviation company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), once it complete certification.

36 more HTT-40 are expected to be ordered once the IAF operationalizes the first lot of orders, bringing the total to 106  aircraft with an expected cost of INR47.7 billion (US$636 million).

The HTT-40 is an indigenously designed and built turboprop basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF), and is meant to replace the ageing HAL HPT-32 Deepak trainer aircraft while supplementing the Pilatus PC-7 Mk. II. 

The new aircraft is an all-metal tandem seat trainer powered by 1,100hp Honeywell Garret TPE331-12B turboprop engine, allowing a maximum speed of 400 kilometers per hour, a maximum range of 1,000 kilometers, and a service ceiling of 6,000 meters.

The development of the HTT-40 experienced years of delays, but has now reached advanced stages of development and is expected to start serial production by late 2020.


[1] Jane’s
[2] Financial Express India