Number of Mach 1.5 capable PAF jet aircraft now at 4

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 1): Number of Mach 1.5 capable PAF jet aircraft now at 4

The number of supersonic jet aircraft in Philippine Air Force (PAF) inventory has now doubled as two more FA-50PHs "Fighting Eagle" Mach 1.5 capable jet planes have arrived in Clark Field, Angeles Thursday morning.

These are FA-50PHs with tail numbers 003 and 004, PAF spokesperson Col. Antonio Francisco said in an interview with PNA.

FA-50PH with tail number 003 landed at 11:41 a.m. while its wingmate, 004, arrived 11:42 a.m.
The two jet fighters left Kaohsiung, Taiwan around 10:10 a.m. They were intercepted by FA-50PHs 001 and 002 while they were flying over Pangasinan.

Francisco said the two new FA-50PHs left the Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) plant in Sacheon City, South Korea last Nov. 29 and arrived in Taiwan on the same date.

"Prior landing, they made two passes over Clark Field in diamond formation together 001 and 002 FA-50PHs. After landing, they passed through (a) water cannon ceremony then the pilots disembarked from the aircraft, they were welcomed by the Secretary of National Defense (Delfin Lorenzana), Chief-of-Staff, AFP (Gen. Ricardo Visaya), Commanding General, PAF (Lt. Gen. Edgar Fallorina) and other commanders," he added.

As this develops, Fallorina said there are currently nine Filipino pilots fully trained to fly the FA-50PHs.

Three of these are instructor pilots and the remaining six are operational ones.

The PAF has 12-plane order from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) worth PHP18.9 billion.

The remaining eight FA-50PHs are expected to be delivered this coming 2017 and 2018.

The FA-50PHs has a top speed of Mach 1.5 or one and a 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.

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 FA-50PH 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 FA-50PHs.

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 FA-50PHs 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.
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=944875