HAWK ASCENDING

Bringing to an apparent end years of protracted negotiations, India has finally approved purchase of the BAE Systems Hawk advanced jet trainer, a deal worth $1.3 billion.

The decision to acquire the Hawk concludes India's tortuous efforts to find a replacement for its obsolete Hindustan Aeronautics HJT-16 Kiran and Polish PZL-11 Iskra. The selection reflects the government's intention to remain strategically independent of a single-supplier state, and to attempt to address increasingly strident domestic clamoring over air force attrition rates.

The deal also ought to have considerable political cachet in London, with elements of the British government having lobbied hard in support of BAE. However, Geoff Hoon, the secretary of state for defense, is fighting for his political survival, embroiled in an enquiry into the apparent suicide of a senior scientist involved in examining Iraq's weapons of mass destruction efforts.

BAE has been in extended negotiations with India over the sale, while Russian and other European jet-trainer manufacturers attempted to thwart the deal. Lately, Russia's Mikoyan and Aero Vodochody from the Czech Republic have figured as stalking horses for BAE.