Seventeen years ago, the Indian Air Force told the government that it desperately needed a trainer to reduce the accident rate. They are still waiting. Plans to buy British Hawks got caught in a "price roadblock", and India has rejected the Italian MB339 and the Brazilian AMX-TA1 as "not meeting requirements". The Indian Air Force has lost 220 pilots and 580 aircraft since 1978, a rate considered extremely high.--Stephen V Cole