Hawker Siddeley Harrier variant
Hawker Siddeley Harrier T.60
Two-seat trainer ordered by the Indian Navy in November 1979 together with its first Sea Harrier FRS Mk.51s, to train the pilots of its carrier air arm. It kept the single-seater's avionics apart from the Blue Fox radar, and its longer fuselage meant it had to be placed diagonally on the hangar lift of INS Viraat. Four were delivered new (IN651 to IN654) between 1984 and 1992. Three were lost in accidents, and IN654 is preserved at Dehradun. The two-seat fleet was topped up with two ex-British T Mk.4s converted by BAE Systems (T.4(I)), which is a different designation. It flew until the Indian Sea Harrier was retired in 2016.
History
A two-seater for the Indian Sea Harrier
The Indian government approved buying the Sea Harrier for its navy in 1977. In November 1979 Naval Headquarters placed the first order: six single-seat Sea Harrier FRS Mk.51 fighters and two two-seat trainers designated T Mk.60. The two-seater was essential. The Harrier takes off and lands vertically using vectored thrust, a piloting technique with no equivalent in conventional aircraft, and the Navy needed a dual-control aircraft so an instructor could fly with a student on their first transitions.
The two-seat family of the first-generation Harrier includes several naval versions with avionics based on the Sea Harrier: the Royal Navy's T.4N and T.8, and India's T.60. The T.60's avionics were those of the Indian Sea Harrier FRS Mk.51.
Deliveries
The first two T Mk.60s, IN651 and IN652, were delivered on 15 and 16 March 1984. By then the Navy already had its first single-seaters: the first three Sea Harriers had arrived at Dabolim airport, Goa, on 16 December 1983. India bought ten more Sea Harriers in November 1985. Two more two-seaters followed later: IN653, delivered on 10 April 1990, and IN654, on 14 January 1992. These were the four factory-built T Mk.60s.
Equipment
According to the Indian type profile, the trainer carried all the avionics systems of the single-seat fighter apart from the Ferranti Blue Fox radar. Students therefore trained with the same cockpit and systems they would meet on the squadron. Without radar, the T.60 was not a full combat aircraft but a conversion and continuation-training platform.
The two-seater's stretched fuselage had a practical consequence aboard ship: to fit on the hangar lift of the carrier INS Viraat, it had to be parked diagonally. The Indian Sea Harrier flew from INS Vikrant, which was modernised between 1987 and 1989, and from INS Viraat.
Training pilots
Until the 1990s, much Sea Harrier pilot training took place in Britain because few aircraft were available. The Sea Harrier Operational Flying Training Unit (SHOFTU) was formed within INAS 300 on 16 April 1990. In 1991 it moved to INAS 551 as a separate flight, INAS 551 B, which converted pilots posted to INAS 300. On 7 July 2005 INAS 552 was formed for ab-initio Sea Harrier training, and the two-seaters flew with it until the end. INAS 552 is now the Navy's flight test squadron.
Losses and the T.4(I) replacements
The Indian Sea Harrier fleet had many accidents, and three involved T Mk.60s. IN652 was lost on 27 June 1988 and its crew ejected. Another T Mk.60, whose serial is unconfirmed, was lost on 2 August 1994. IN651, the first delivered, crashed into the sea near Goa on 5 April 2007: both crew ejected, but only one was rescued alive.
To make up for the losses, BAE Systems converted two ex-RAF T.4 two-seaters for the Indian Navy, delivered from December 2003 as IN655 and IN656. These aircraft carry a different designation, T.4(I). They were brought to T Mk.60 standard despite airframe differences, but they are not factory T.60s. In early 2007 the two-seat fleet consisted of two T Mk.60s from the original batch and these two T.4(I)s.
Upgrades and the end
India considered a mid-life upgrade in 1999, which was later cancelled. In March 2005 an upgrade of fourteen Sea Harriers with the Elta EL/M-2032 radar and the Derby missile was approved. That upgrade applied to the single-seat FRS Mk.51s. The material consulted does not show any T Mk.60 receiving it.
The arrival of the MiG-29K and of the carrier INS Vikramaditya, commissioned in June 2014, sealed the type's fate. Sea Harriers operated from INS Viraat for the last time on 6 March 2016. On 11 May 2016 a ceremony at INS Hansa (Dabolim) marked their retirement from INAS 300 after 33 years of service. IN654, the last T Mk.60 delivered, is preserved at the Rashtriya Indian Military College in Dehradun.