THE Air Force will rejoin the “jet age” on Friday when two South Korean-made FA-50 lead-in fighter jets ordered from South Korea will arrive in the country.
The Air Force spokesman, Col. Enrico Canaya, said the two supersonic fighter jets manufactured by the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) will touch down at Clark at around 10 a.m. The jets will be flown by South Korean pilots.
“This is historic because for the first time since the decommissioning in 2005 of fighters, this is the first time that we’ll have supersonic capability. So this is revival of jet age… supersonic,” he said.
The delivery of the jets followed a maiden flight on June 19 in South Korea of one of the manufactured aircraft and it followed the announcement of the Department of National Defense (DND) that the country will have its fighter aircraft before the end of this year.
The two lead-in aircraft forms part of the 12 fighter jets that were ordered from KAI, with a total contracted price of P18.9 billion that was signed in March 2013.
Canaya said that while the two aircraft would already be in the country this weekend, they would not be accepted until after a ceremonial flight.
“After the arrival, there will be acceptance flights, then later on official turnover to the Air Force,” he said, adding the event would be attended by top Air Force and military officials.
Initially, Canaya said the two FA-50s will be utilized primarily in “gradual capability development and build up time and training of new pilots.” “We will have months of training new pilots, gain time first using these new aircraft,” he said.
The arrival of the two FA-50s comes at a time when the military needs assets and equipment in order to maintain a stronger presence in the West Philippine Sea, owing to China’s encroaching in the area.
Canaya said the 10 other FA-50s will be delivered in batches of two and delivery should be completed by 2017.
A recent findings released by the Commission on Audit (COA), however, said the procurement of the squadron of fighter jets was “questionable” because it skirted procurement regulations.
The DND, however, maintained that its acquisition of the jets by way of a government-to-government contract was allowed under the law.
However, the COA said the regulations under which the defense department availed the jets by way of a government-to-government were not followed, with the DND only invoking national security as a reason.