The South Korean-manufactured F/A-50 "Fighting Eagle," of which the Philippine government has ordered 12 units, will be used for air defense missions by the Philippine Air Force (PAF).
"It will be used for air defense, a vital component of territorial defense which is a constitutional mandate of the Armed Forces of the Philippines," PAF spokesperson Lt. Col. Enrico Canaya confirmed in an interview with the Philippines News Agency.
Air defense refers to the capability to detect and protect a country's airspace against aerial intruders.
Canaya said that this is possible as the Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI)-made jet plane has basic fighter capabilities.
"The F/A-50 (can train) fighter pilots and has basic jet fighter capabilities," he added.
The
Canaya said the South Korean jet aircraft can be used to redevelop the supersonic capabilities of the PAF which it lost after the last one of its supersonic planes, the Northrop F-5 "Tiger," was retired in 2005.
The F/A-50, as per technical specifications obtained from the Department of National Defense, can carry a total of 10,500 pounds of weapons, including an internal 20mm internal automatic cannon, two short-ranged air-to-air AIM-9 "Sidewinder" missiles and air-to-surface AGM-65 missiles for close-air support.
A guidance kit called the JDAM (joint direct attack munition) is also installed into the F/A-50, allowing it to convert unguided or "dumb bombs" into all-weather smart munitions.
These bombs are outfitted with an inertial guidance system that is tied to a global positioning system receiver to guide the deployed munition intended to precisely hit a specific target, and to minimize collateral damage.
This will be the first-ever PAF aircraft to employ such weapons. The Northrop F-5 "Tiger" and Vought F-8 "Crusader" -- the country's first and class supersonic fighters -- do not have the above-mentioned capabilities.
Both planes are only armed with 20mm cannons, air-to-air missiles and unguided bombs and rockets.
The
KAI's F/A-50 has a top speed of Mach 1.5 or one-and-half times the speed of sound.
The F/A-50 will act as the country's interim fighter until the
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 seating in tandem. 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 the airframe is designed to last 8,000 hours of service.
There are seven internal fuel tanks with total capacity of 2,655 liters (701
An additional 1,710 liters (452
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=10&sid=&nid=10&rid=647122
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