With the arrival of the South Korean-made F/A-50
"Fighting Eagle" by the last quarter of this year, the Philippine Air
Force (PAF) will be at last fielding aircraft with "electronic
countermeasures" (ECM) capability.
It is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick
or deceive radar, sonar or other detection systems, like infrared or lasers.
ECM may be used both offensively and defensively to deny
targeting information to an enemy.
Col. Enrico Canaya, PAF spokesperson, said this will allow
F/A-50 pilots to determine whether they are being targeted by hostile fire
control radars.
With the "Fighting Eagle" having this capability,
he added that pilots can evade or launch countermeasures that that can deceive
or "spoof" enemy radars, thus ensuring their survival.
The PAF earlier said relatively updated radar systems
onboard, the soon-to-be commissioned F/A-50s is able to do autonomous air
patrols without relying too much on ground based surveillance systems.
"(The F/A-50s) has its own onboard radar systems so it
can detect (any hostile air threats) while on patrol," it added.
The PAF declined to give the specifics of the F/A-50's radar
systems for security reasons but stressed that it is quite adequate for air
patrol work.
Sources said this feature of the South Korean made jet
fighter has greatly boosted the air defense capabilities of the PAF which was
greatly reduced with the decommissioning of its Northrop F-5 "Tiger"
jet fighter squadrons and Vought F-8 "Crusader" fleet, in 2005 and
1988, respectively.
This was done due to air frame aging and lack of spare parts
to keep the two planes on operational status.
With the deactivation of its two premier supersonic jet
fighters, the PAF was forced to convert the SIAI-Marchetti S-211 jet trainers
for an air defense role.
However, the S-211s are ill-suited for air defense work due
to their slow speeds
The DND earlier said that the radar systems onboard the
F/A-50s is one of the many pluses why the Philippines
The F/A-50 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.
The F/A-50 will act as the country's interim fighter until
the Philippines
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
An additional 1,710 liters (452 US
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=760876
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