Two more FA-50s arrive in Pampanga

April 26, 2017

The ninth and tenth units of the FA-50 fighter trainer aircraft of the Philippine Air Force arrived in Pampanga on Wednesday morning. Col. Antonio Francisco, Philippine Air Force Spokesman said the FA-50s with tail number 009 and 010 landed at Clark Airbase in Pampanga around 11:20 am. He said the aircraft that left Sacheon, South Gyeongsang province in South Korea around 7:59 am last Tuesday stopped over the province of Jeju also in South Korea, then proceeded to Taiwan before it left for Philippines. During its arrival, the two aircraft flown by Korean pilots were welcomed by Philippine Air Force 1st Air Division Commander Major Enrique Reyes. Francisco did not give the schedule for the arrival of the 11th and 12th units of the FA-50 but he assured the delivery of the remaining aircraft will be completed within the year. The government has spent a total of 18.9 billion pesos for the acquisition of the 12 FA-50 fighter aircraft from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). The first batch was delivered on November 2015, while the second arrived November of 2016, then the third batch was sent March 3, 2017 and the fourth one came on March 29. Francisco noted the FA50 aircraft is not just for territorial defense but for capability enhancement of the Filipino pilots. “Our FA50 is very functional right now for us, of course besides the territorial defense, it is a multi-role fighter, lead-in surface attack and trainer aircraft so what we are really focusing right now is the training of our pilots because if there will be a possibility that we are going to acquire some more fighters in the future then at least we already generate more pilots and who have skills and time on our supersonic fighter planes,” he said. Robina Asido/DMS