PAF seals F/A-50 contract

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 28): PAF seals F/A-50 contract

Department of National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Friday the Philippine Air Force (PAF) is no longer the butt of jokes among aviation military circles with the signing of the Php 18.9 billion contract for the 12 F/A-50 "Fighting Eagle" jet aircraft.

"Our Air Force has found a promise of new life with the realization of our AFP modernization program. With the eventual delivery and acquisition of these new air assets our Air Force can already forget the lingering and naughty joke that it is all air without force," he stressed.

Gazmin made this statement shortly after Armed Forces of the Philippines chief-of-staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency president and chief executive officer Young Ho Oh and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Ltd president and chief executive officer Ha Sung Yong formally signed the contract for the Php 18. 9 billion project.

"It is heartening to know that in the near future, we will see this air assets fly across the Philippines. To say that the journey was not easy would be an understatement, for those closely involved in the tedious process that we went through," he added.

"I am sure that personal sacrifices have been made, I'm happy to say however that all these seemingly endless discussions, long lines and never ending communications have paid of. I would like to thank the hard working men and women whose efforts have made this day possible. To our DND Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) chaired by undersecretary Fernando Manalo, the DND SBAC secretariat and the technical working groups for the two acquisition projects. let me express my gratitude and warmest congratulations for a job well done," he added.

As this develops, Manalo said that the first two F/A-50 jet aircraft will be delivered 18 months after the opening of the letter of credit, the next two will be delivered 12 months later and the remaining eight jet planes to be delivered in staggered basis within eight months.

The F/A-50 has a top speed of Mach 1.5 or one and half times the speed of sound and is capable of being fitted air-to-air missiles, including the AIM-9 "Sidewinder" air-to-air and heat-seeking missiles aside from light automatic cannons.

The F/A-50 will act as the country's interim fighter until the Philippines get enough experience of operating fast jet assets and money to fund the acquisition of more capable fighter aircraft.

The F/A-50 design is largely derived from the F-16 "Fighting Falcon", and they have many similarities: use of a single engine, speed, size, cost, and the range of weapons.

KAI's previous engineering experience in license-producing the KF-16 was a starting point for the development of the F/A-50.

The aircraft can carry two pilots in tandem seating. The high-mounted canopy developed by Hankuk Fiber is applied with stretched acrylic, providing the pilots with good visibility, and has been tested to offer the canopy with ballistic protection against four-pound objects impacting at 400 knots.

The altitude limit is 14,600 meters (48,000 feet), and airframe is designed to last 8,000 hours of service.

There are seven internal fuel tanks with capacity of 2,655 liters (701 US gallons), five in the fuselage and two in the wings.

An additional 1,710 liters (452 US gallons) of fuel can be carried in the three external fuel tanks.

Trainer variants have a paint scheme of white and red, and aerobatic variants white, black, and yellow.

The F/A-50 "Fighting Eagle" uses a single General Electric F404-102 turbofan engine license-produced by Samsung Techwin, upgraded with a full authority digital engine control system jointly developed by General Electric and KAI.

The engine consists of three-staged fans, seven axial stage arrangement, and an afterburner.

The aircraft has a maximum speed of Mach 1.4-1.5.

Its engine produces a maximum of 78.7 kN (17,700 lbf) of thrust with afterburner.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=630381