Two supersonic jet fighters landed at Clark Airbase in Pampanga yesterday, bringing to 10 the number of aircraft the Philippines has acquired from South Korea.
The FA-50PH training aircraft, with Korean pilots at the controls, touched down around 11 a.m. and brought to Haribon Hangar, according to Air Force spokesman Col. Antonio Francisco.
On hand to welcome the two aircraft were 1st Division Commander Major General Enrique Reyes and Major General Arnold Mancita, commander of the Air Logistics Command.
The jets, which Francisco described as a multi-role aircraft, were built by the Korean Aerospace Industries Ltd.
Two more are expected in the weeks to come to complete a squadron. The jets were acquired for P18.9 billion by the Aquino administration.
The first batch of the FA-50 jets arrived on November 28, 2015, marking PAF’s return to the supersonic age a decade after retiring the last of its United States-made F5 fighter jets in 2005.
Francisco said aside from being used for training pilots, the fighter jets have been deployed for surgical airstrikes against local terrorists in Mindanao. “Yes, some of them have seen action in Mindanao,” Francisco confirmed.
The PAF official said even before the first delivery of the fighter jets, Filipino pilots were sent to South Korea to start training. “We intend to train more pilots for our future acquisitions of fighter jets,” Francisco said.
Ideally, five pilots are assigned for each jet fighter, according to Francisco.
The acquisition of the FA-50 is seen as the first step to modernize the Air Force which hopes to buy more capable multi-role fighters in the future.
For the meantime, the FA-50s have been useful in ground attacks through their ability to launch precision-guided munitions. The FA-50 can employ deadly GPS-guided JDAM bombs, Maverick anti-tank missiles, and unguided cluster and conventional bombs and rockets, according to Sebastien Roblin whose article came out in The National Interest magazine.
Roblin wrote that the jet’s targeting computer and radar allow it to deliver even “dumb” bombs with a high degree of accuracy. “The FA-50 can haul up to 8,500 pounds of external stores on 7 hardpoints. A triple-barreled A-50 20mm cannon rounds out the armament,” Roblin wrote.
The Korean Air Force has about a 100 FA-50s with an additional 50 in the works. (FRANCIS T. WAKEFIELD)