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September 6, 2003

After two decades of effort, BAE Systems has finally sold 66 Hawk jet trainers to India, at a cost of some $25 million each. The delays were caused by the governments unwillingness to spend the money, and the efforts of French, Russian, Czech and American aircraft manufacturers to put forward their own candidates. Finally, the growing number of Indian MiG-21 aircraft lost, partly due to inadequately trained pilots, forced the government to close the deal. The Hawk advanced jet trainers are the most successful Western aircraft of this type, at least in terms of sales (over 800 have been sold). The US Navy uses the Hawk, and India felt the Hawk was the most suitable for training MiG-21 pilots.