Philippines acquires 2 FA-50 fighters from South Korea

Philippines Finalizing Plans To Buy 12 Korean FA-50 Jet Fighters

 

Looks nice in that picture. How does it compare side to side against existing air-craft though?

 

Don't think it ranks in the top ten, but super sonic with a variety of armament, can still be formidable. It really boils down to the pilots experience unless up against another craft it
cannot over take or out run.

 

There is no realistic/likely scenario where these aircraft would need to be used and come out winners. Maybe if they had thousands of them the Philippines could send them out in massive swarms to overwhelm 4th gen and 5th gen fighters. These two aircraft (and the dozen or so others) will serve as nothing more than target practice for an invading military force. Send them over the Spratley Islands and they can be written off as a loss. Their status as a supersonic air-craft doesn't really mean much, they cannot outrun radar and they cannot outrun surface or air to air missiles.

 

Totally agree. It seems obvious that they are to only slow any attack, down by maybe 10 hours or so.... till the USA sends in 50 Raptors! All that being said, I'd put my money on the 12 best Filipino Pilots over the 12 best Chinese Pilots any day! I think this is a smart move and China will wake up and smell the d*mn coffee one way or another!

 

I'd be willing to take that bet. These are trainer jets are meant to fill a gap between their basic jet trainers and fighters jets (which they don't have or even have any plans on getting yet). Chinese fighter pilots would have already been through that stage of training. The Philippine pilots have very little, if any, training on the technology in those air-crafts. They are going to need the Koreans or Americans to come in and show them how to just switch the thing on (hopefully they have already started the basic training programs for their pilots). These modified trainer jets would even serve as a speed bump for an F16 or equivalent fighter.


Even if they were already properly trained on the A-50 the F16 (and I'd assume China's modern fighters) have a 116% further detection range. Missiles would already be in the air and on the way before the the A-50 even knew another aircraft was there.

China has spent the last 20 years modernizing their air force.......the Philippine just started their modernization last week.

 

Oh well.... when all else fails the still got Special Op's....

 

I really don't think there is anyone that wants to take over our invade the Philippines or its airspace. There really isn't much to gain from taking over the Philippines other than headaches. I think the Chinese will stick to the claiming of uninhabited and disputed islands. There won't be anything the Philippine military can do about it without support from the US.

If Duterte wins and has his way he will likely destroy the relationship with the West/US (in his last speech he said the Americans should just go home). When that happens they can kiss any claims they have in the Spratley Islands goodbye.