Air Force's FA-50PH fighter jets capable of doing interception, light attack missions

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 30): Air Force's FA-50PH fighter jets capable of doing interception, light attack missions

Despite its "light-interim fighter aircraft" designation, the newly-arrived South Korean FA-50PH jets are capable of intercepting and if necessary, shooting down hostile planes.

This was disclosed by Lt. Col. Rolando Conrad Peña III, one of the three Filipino pilots who underwent FA-50PH flight training in South Korea for six and a half months.

“We’ve been trained to do tactical intercepts, so we are (capable of doing) that,” he added.

The latter tasking refers to stopping intruding or hostile aircraft from penetrating into Philippine airspace.

Aside from interception work, the FA-50PHs is capable of light attack or bombing missions, Peña stressed.

“The FA-50PH (is designated) a lead-in-fighter aircraft so it is a light attack aircraft. It can do light multi-role missions but primarily it is a lead in fighter trainer. This is going to be a transition platform for us, from flying the subsonic S-211 to the more advanced multi-role fighters we’ll be acquiring,” he added.

“The aircraft is a lead-in fighter trainer so it is a light attack aircraft. It can do light multi-role missions but primarily it is a lead in fighter trainer. This is going to be a transition platform for us, from flying the subsonic S-211 to the more advanced multi-role fighters we’ll be acquiring,” he added.

Peña said the FA-50PHs will be used for various missions, including interception.

“We’ve been trained to do tactical intercepts, so we are able to do that,” he added.

Peña said the two aircraft arrived without any armament. He said efforts are underway to acquire weapons for the aircraft, which may include air to air and air to ground capability.

“It has maximum payload capacity of 10,000 lbs so it's very much capable. But of course, there are limitations but let’s not talk about the limitations. Let’s talk about the capabilities and I think we bought the best lead in fighter trainer,” he said.

Peña said the Air Force can now respond faster to any situation.

“Now that we have a supersonic aircraft, our reaction time will be faster and we are more capable with this type of aircraft,” he said.

“This is really like a Ferrari because it is a fly-by wire aircraft. It's comparable to an F-16 but (it's a) little weak on some parameters but then it is the best that the Air Force acquired at the moment. But we are looking forward to acquiring the multi-role fighters,” Peña said.

The contract for the 12-plane FA-50PH order was signed last March 2014 by Department of National Defense and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) officials.

The F/A-50 (the other designation for the FA-50PH) 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.

It 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 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 Korean Aerospace Industries.

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

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=832706