Pipistrel is happy and honoured to announce that all the 194 aircraft for Indian Ministry of Defence have been successfully delivered.
In October 2015 in fierce international competition Pipistrel was awarded a contract for production of 194 highly capable trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF), Indian Navy (IN) and National Cadet Corps (NCC) for different applications. This was the world’s largest single contract for the delivery of light aircraft to date. GR
Graduation ceremony at a Naval Base in India at the end of training.
Deliveries began in 2016 (More info: First shipment of aircraft for the Indian Ministry of Defence, Third batch of Garud delivered to Indian Navy/) and we are proud to announce that on 20 September we received the great news from our Indian partner Skytec Solutions that the last batch of the 194 aircraft has been successfully delivered to the end user customer by Pipistrel.
CEO of Pipistrel India presenting a Garud aircraft model to a base commander after delivery.
Pipistrel flight instructors with Air Force and NCC instructors after the completion of flight training at an air force base.
The contract also included training of a large number of technicians and engineers from all three branches of Ministry of Defence. Training was conducted by the Pipistrel Academy air school from Slovenia with our own instructors and with the help of our Indian partner Skytec Solutions.
Group photograph of one of the batches of technicians and engineers after the successful completion of their training.
The part of the contract concerning delivery is thus concluded, but the customer support, guarantees, servicing and delivery of spare parts will continue for a long time. During the next 15 years large number of Indian military pilots and NCC cadets will be trained on the Pipistrel aircraft.
Delivery locations in India
The deliveries were made to 85 locations, where the Indian team assembled the aircraft in the presence of end user representatives of the Ministry of Defence, tested them in the air and handed them over to the customer.
By successfully completing the deliveries, Pipistrel has proven itself to be a professionally capable, reliable industry partner to one of the most demanding military institution in the world. Although India is only the fourth military superpower by size, it has a reputation of being a tough negotiator and being nearly impossible to strike a deal with. Few accepted business are known to become finalized and this is another reason why we are very proud an honoured that Pipistrel can be among them.
Ivo Boscarol, the CEO of Pipistrel, says:
“At the beginning also big players in the aviation warned me that working with India is not possible and we would never bring the contract to the end successfully, but all of us, working together as a strong team, succeeded in doing just that. We are the proof that with the skills, hard work and cooperation also the hardest challenges are possible to be completed. We have proven to our customers, competitors and the entire world that we are capable to carry out even the most demanding businesses. This brought us a great reputation not only in India but much more broadly in the entire environment which is in any way related to the military. This deal opened many future doors for us.
Here I must point out that our appointed Indian partner Skytec Solutions and its CEO, Wg Cdr Sanjay Thapar VM (Veteran) was an asset. His experience, diplomatic skills, and deep knowledge of Indian laws and doing ethical business in India were helpful. With his help we have established fruitful business cooperation with the Indian Army, which we can only wish to maintain in the future.
Thanks dear Sanjay, thank you and your team for your great contribution.
Pipistrel would like to thank all the colleagues and business partners in India and Slovenia who helped achieve this success. “
Wg Cdr Sanjay Thapar VM (Veteran), CEO of India’s Pipistrel partner Skytec Solutions, says:
“Winning the contract in tough competitive environment was easy for Pipistrel as they offered the best product at the lowest price. But execution of contract was full of challenges, biggest being large number of delivery locations spread all over India from Srinagar to Trivandrum, Chabua to Naliya and Port Blair in high seas. I take this opportunity to thank all Indian services officials for their support, particularly heads of service HQs and their nodal officers. As a proud Indian and a veteran air warrior I am happy that India at last has best in class microlight fleet, which will meet aspiration of all users in respect of their expectations from this aircraft. I wish all users a success with greetings from Team Pipistrel as Happy Landings and Blue Skies.”
This business was one of the reasons that the CEO of Pipistrel, Mr Ivo Boscarol, was invited as a guest to his Excellency, President of India Mr. Ram Nath Kovind during his official visit to Slovenia. His Excellency congratulated Ivo for supplying the 194 aircraft to the Indian Armed Forces and emphasized that he was proud that India had such a strong partner in Slovenia.
More about this event: https://www.pipistrel-aircraft.com/the-president-of-india-honored-pipistrel-greatly-during-his-visit-in-slovenia/
His Excellency also praised the amazing achievement of two Indian female pilots who flew around the world as the first women in a light aircraft, using a Pipistrel’s Sinus. (https://theweexpedition.wordpress.com/author/theweexpedition/ )
Pipistrel thanks everybody who contributed to this great common success.