IAF Wants Brimstone & ASRAAM On Its Hawk Trainers

The Indian Air Force is exploring the possibility of slinging six Brimstone and a pair of ASRAAMs on its over 120 Hawk jet trainers.

Senior MBDA officials tell Livefist that the IAF is engaged in detailed discussions on a potential program that the company says will be a low-cost/time that involves modifications that can be conducted on site with kits in a ‘matter of days’.

Arming India’s Hawks has been a notion tossed about by the IAF for years now, but so far the proposition has fundamentally meant more airframes. The current pitch seeks to take into account a combination of factors: chronic budgetary pressures that won’t go away, the need for a simplified boost in tactical combat capabilities and availability, and finally the long felt need to stretch the Hawk fleet beyond its baseline training duties to potential war assets if and when hostilities break out.

The BAE-HAL Advanced Hawk, an improved and combat ready Hawk, revealed first here on Livefist, is on offer separately to the IAF. MBDA, owned 37.5% by BAE Systems, is understood to be pursuing specific IAF interest in the Brimstone for the first time — the IAF has already begun accepting deliveries of the ASRAAM for its Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft fleet.

The IAF’s perceived interest in the Brimstone is both new and significant, given that it hasn’t specifically cast its gaze on the weapon system on its other airframing programs.