FA-50PH performance impresses Americans, likened to F-16

From Update.Ph (Apr 17): FA-50PH performance impresses Americans, likened to F-16

Seeing Balikatan action for the first time, the country’s newly-acquired South Korean-made FA-50PH “Fighting Eagle” light-interim fighter aircraft gave an impressive showing during the aerial phase of the annual military maneuvers aside from impressing American pilots.

This was disclosed by Philippine Air Force (PAF) spokesperson Col. Araus Roberto Musico in a message to the PNA Saturday.

“The Americans [were] impressed. The combined flight exercise involved interception simulation where our FA-50 jets flew against other fighter jets acting as aggressors (two Hawker Hunters served that part) because of sophisticated navigation and detection equipment, our FA-50s were able to easily spot and intercept the aggressors with the assistance of AWACS (airborne warning and control system) serving as airborne controllers,” he added.

This year’s Balikatan exercises formally started April 4 and ended on April 15.
The aerial phase of the maneuvers took place during Balikatan’s first week.

“Generally, the Americans were surprised with the aircraft’s performance, even going further to say that it is similar to a lesser degree than the F-16 (General Dynamics F-16 ‘Fighting Falcon’),” Musico added.

The Philippines has a 12 FA-50PH order from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) worth PHP18.9 billion.

The first two units arrived last Nov. 28 with the remaining 10 to be delivered during 2016 and 2017.

http://www.update.ph/2016/04/fa-50ph-performance-impresses-americans-likened-to-f-16/4377