Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) displayed a model of its company-funded HLFT-42 (Hindustan Lead-in Fighter Trainer) concept at the recent Aero India show, despite the apparent lack of a formal Indian Air Force requirement for the jet. The project is being positioned as a lead-in fighter training (LIFT) aircraft that will have performance and systems representative of frontline types, allowing it to download training from operational aircraft while exposing pilots to modern sensors, weapons and roles at lower cost. It is intended to provide a stepping stone between the subsonic jet training currently undertaken on the BAE Systems Hawk 132 and frontline type conversion.
The aircraft follows a number of previous Indian LIFT projects, including the joint BAE Systems-HAL Advanced Hawk offered to the Indian Air Force in 2017, and the HAL Light Combat Aircrafrt (Tejas)-based SPORT (Supersonic Omni Role Trainer Aircraft), first revealed in 2019. It has been reported that the HLFT-42 will use state-of-the-art avionics from HAL’s proposed Hawk-I upgrade, including some equipment originally developed for the Jaguar DARIN modernization. It is also expected to incorporate a locally developed active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, an indigenous electronic warfare suite, an infrared search and track (IRST) system, and an embedded virtual training system that will allow realistic combat scenarios and large-force engagements to be simulated.
The lightweight airframe will feature either a General Electric F404 turbofan or the indigenous GTX-35VS Kaveri engine, which both promise to provide superior kinematic performance to the Tejas, and and to allow it to surpass the Tejas in terms of internal and external fuel load, and maximum takeoff weight. Fly-by-wire flight controls promise representative and class-leading handling characteristics and high-Alpha capability.
The HLFT has been schemed with operational capabilities and can, according to Group Captain Harshvardhan Thakur from the HLFT-42 development team, “be converted into a fully-fledged fighter aircraft by integrating weapons like CCM [close combat missiles] and Astra [beyond-visual-range air-to-air] missiles, carrying up to 10 of the latter together with two ASRAAM short-range missiles." He added that, “From the conception stage to induction, it could take anywhere from five to six years for this trainer to be in service.” HAL has said that the new supersonic trainer has “immense” export potential, though others believe that the aircraft is coming late to a very crowded market, albeit one without competitors as advanced or as modern as the HLFT-42 promises to be.
The new aircraft bears some familial resemblance to the delta-canard HAL Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF) unveiled at Aero India in 2021, but with a more conventional configuration. Some detect a resemblance to the 1960s-vintage HF-24 Marut fighter-bomber, the first frontline fast jet aircraft designed and built in India, whose design team was led by renowned German engineer Kurt Tank, creator of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
When unveiled at the Aero India show the HLFT-42 bore a likeness of the Hindu deity Lord Hanuman (also known as Maruti) on its tail, together with the slogan "The storm is coming", originally coined for the HF-24 Marut. The slogan stayed in place, but the image of Lord Hanuman was removed the next day, before being restored—apparently due to public demand.