2 more Air Force FA-50 jets to arrive Wednesday

MANILA, Philippines (Philippines News Agency) — Two more South Korean-made FA-50 "Fighting Eagle" jet trainers will be arriving in Clark Air Base, Pampanga Wednesday, raising the number of the country's Mach 1.5-capable aircraft to six.

Philippine Air Force spokesperson Col. Antonio Francisco confirmed this in a statement Tuesday.

He said that the FA-50PHs, with tail numbers 005 and 006, will be landing at Clark Air Base Wednesday around 11 a.m. from South Korea.

Francisco said the two jets will be welcomed by Air Logistics Command head Major Gen. Arnold Mancita and Lt. Gen. Edgar R. Fallorina, Air Force commanding general.

With the expected delivery of the pair, only six more FA-50PHs remain to be delivered to the PAF.

The PAF's 12-plane order from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is worth P18.9 billion.

The FA-50PH has a top speed of Mach 1.5 or one and a half times the speed of sound and may be equipped with 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 gets enough experience in 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 the two aircraft 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 the 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-50PH 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.