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The Korean Aviation Industry Corporation (KAI) provided Egypt with the export and co-production of the FA-50 / T-50 Golden Eagle advanced training jet aircraft.
T-50s take shape on KAI’s final assembly line. The Golden Eagle has racked up an impressive number of export sales – most customers opting for the TA-50/FA-50 versions with enhanced combat capability.
The most important specifications of the “Fighting Eagle FA-50
The Fighting Eagle is a supersonic light attack aircraft developed by the Korean company KAI in cooperation with the American company Lockheed Martin, and it is also considered a supersonic training aircraft.
When the American company Lockheed Martin meets with the South Korean company KAI to introduce a new product, it is very natural for this product to be the best in its class in the world. And KAI has benefited from its manufacture of F-16 fighters for the Korean Air Force in the manufacture of this fighter. The general shape of the fighter is similar to the F-16 in terms of cockpit height, almost the same length and use of the same engine, even the operating costs of the two fighters are similar.
GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS
- Crew: 2
• Height: 13.14 m
• Wingspan: 9.17 m
• Height: 4.78 m
Empty weight: 6350 kg
• Maximum take-off weight: 13,470 kg
• External payload: 4.5 tons
• Engine: One F-404 General Electric turbofan, generating 78 kilotons using afterburner
• Top speed: Mach 1.5 (1837 km/h)
• Range: 1850 km
• Ceiling height: 16000m
The aircraft comes in two versions, one of which is used in advanced training to train pilots on fourth-generation and fifth-generation fighters called T-50, and the second is used as a light attack fighter (same class as India's Tejas and Pakistan's JF-17) and its name is F/A-50.
Egypt will contract on the latest version, the FA-50 multi-role fighter variant, which is equipped with an AESA electronic search radar, manufactured and developed by the two Korean companies Samsung - Thales, France, which manufactures the Rafale fighter radar. The new radar will be used on the developed Korean F-16 fighters and may also work on F-16 Block 52 fighters. Egyptian.
FA-50 light combat aircraft cockpit and avionics
KAI FA-50’s tandem glass cockpit can carry two crew members. It is equipped with a wide field of view head-up display (HUD), colour multifunction displays (MFDs), digital engine instrumentation, Hands On Throttle-And-Stick (HOTAS), integrated up-front controls, and zero-zero ejection seat.The flight control systems include digital fly-by-wire, active stick, electrical emergency power unit, digital break-by-wire and triple redundant electrical system.
The cockpit also integrates an On-Board Oxygen Generation Systems (OBOGS). The Night Vision Imaging System (NVIS) aboard the aircraft ensures mission capability during day and night.
The avionics package consists of embedded Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System (INS/GPS), integrated mission computer, identification, friend or foe (IFF), radar altimeter, multimode radar, store management system, UHF/VHF radio, tactical data link, data transfer and recording system, Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) and Counter Measure Dispensing System (CMDS).
The internal fuel for the FA-50 has also been increased and additional fuel tanks have been added until its range reaches 2,400 km instead of 1,850 km, and the old General Electric F-404 engine has been replaced with the new, wonderful and powerful F-414 engine, which is the same engine as the American F-18 “Super Hornet” fighter. Which will give the fighter greater speed and ability to increase the payload of ammunition and weapons.
Armament
7 external suspension points capable of carrying 4,500 kg including AMRAAM, Sidewinder,
Maverick, free-drop, and JDAM (including AIM-9 Sidewinder, AGM-65 Maverick, and GBU air-to-air missiles). 38/B built-in sensors (CBU-105, Mk-82 LDGP bombs and cluster bomb units).
In addition, the combat aircraft is equipped with a three-barreled 20mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun that can fire 205 rounds, and a 19-tube 2.75 LAU-3/A rocket launcher for folding aerial missiles (FFAR).
And it can stay in the air about four hours per flight and can serve 8,000 flight hours.. it is sold at $20/30 million per fighter. This amount can be increased according to the customer’s requirements for equipment and capabilities. (Iraq for example paid $45 million per fighter)..
This deal will be one of the most important Egyptian military industrialization deals as an important step towards manufacturing a national fighter, as it is expected that Egypt will introduce a local product in the manufacturing of at least 30% in the first phase to reach in its last phase at least 60% of the components of the fighter, as It is a fighter that cannot be underestimated in carrying out the tasks of light attack and ground support and carrying out all combat missions in the air, land and sea, and it can carry a large and different group of weapons and ammunition that is easy to integrate, and is characterized by its appropriate economic price that will facilitate its marketing to the Arab and African markets, which will enter Egypt into an era of export Fighters, in addition, will be used in Sinai and the Western Desert and securing the borders and coasts instead of heavy fighters, whose cost per hour of flight is multiple times the cost of the cost per hour on the Korean fighter FA-50, and also to not overuse the heavy first-class fighters in these light operations..
Source: Multiple sources
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