Maiden flight of first Philippine FA-50 a success

The Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) announced that first flight of FA-50 for Philippines was a success. “FA-50PH’s maiden flight took place on 19 June after the Philippines has signed a contract for 12 KAI FA-50 fighter aircraft in March last year,” KAI said in its social networking page.

“We will [do] our best to deliver initial 2 aircraft by the end of this year,” the Korean company said.

Philippine Air Force pilots high timers were chosen to train for the FA-50 in South Korea. “The operative term there is train the trainors, they will soon become the instructor pilots,” said Col. Miguel Okol from Air Defense Wing.

FA-50 can load up to 4.5 tons of weapons and has a wide-range of armament system. It has a 20 mm three-barrel gun that can fire at extremely high rate internally installed.

It can be fitted with AIM-9 Sidewinder, a short-range air-to-air missile; AGM-65, an air-to-surface missile designed for close-air support missions; cluster bombs and rocket launchers.

The Fighting Eagle is equipped with Multimode Airborne Fire Control Radar system designed to accomplish air-to-air and airstrike missions.

Sumber : Angmalaya