IAF to train RAF pilots: All British academies now host Indian instructors
The IAF instructors to be deployed to RAF Valley will instruct on the trainer aircraft BAE Hawk T2 or Texan T1
 "IAF to train RAF pilots: All British academies now host Indian instructors")
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will, for the first time, deploy three qualified flight instructors to Royal Air Force (RAF) Valley in the United Kingdom (UK) to train British fast-jet pilots, a move that marks the presence of Indian instructors in all military academies of that country.
The training will be conducted for a period of two years initially, according to a media statement issued by the British High Commission in India after air staff talks between the two countries in New Delhi on Thursday.
The IAF instructors to be deployed to RAF Valley, the training base for the British fast-jet pilots, will instruct on the trainer aircraft BAE Hawk T2 or Texan T1.
During their tenure, the Indian instructors will remain under IAF command while working for RAF commanders on instructional duties, the statement said.
With this, all British military academies now host Indian instructors from the three services.
In January, an IAF officer was deployed as an instructor to the RAF College Cranwell, the academy that trains the next generation of RAF officers. The Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth has an Indian Navy officer as an instructor since May 2024, and an Indian Army officer serves as an instructor at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst since last May.
“Together, we are investing in the foundation of a long-term collaboration and shaping a partnership that is both enduring and strategic in its outlook,” the statement quoted Air Vice Marshal Ian Townsend, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, UK, as saying about the development.
India and the UK have a strategic bilateral relationship. An agreement on cooperation in military training was signed during British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to Mumbai in October.
Last year, the UK and India navies conducted the largest maritime exercise involving their carrier strike groups. That was followed by the joint army exercise Ajeya Warrior in Rajasthan.
An F-35B fighter jet of the UK Royal Navy was stranded in India for five weeks last summer, reportedly owing to bad weather and a technical snag.