Shear English - The Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) will acquire South Korean-made T50 Golden Eagle training planes next year, a top military officer said here Saturday. Speaking to newsmen after attending the 65th commemoration of the TNI-AU Anniversary here, Air Chief Marshal Imam Sufaat said there would be a squadron or 16 units of T50 Golden Eagle aircraft.
The procurement of the new training airplanes was part of the Indonesian Air Force’s efforts to meet its minimum essential force by 2024, he said. "The president’s policy is accelerating the needs of military equipments, especially changing the airplanes whose ages are above 30 years old," he said.
These T50 Golden Eagle planes would replace the British Hawk 53 MKs. Besides those new training airplanes, the TNI-AU would also buy Super Tucano planes to replace those of OV-10 Broncos. The Defense Ministry had even allocated budgets for purchasing these Super Tucano planes, he said. Asked about the total amount of budget allocated for buying a squadron of T50 Golden Eagle, he said the government had to allocate 400 million US dollars.
"These training planes are expected to have been received by 2012," he said. According to him, the T50 Golden Eagles were so fit for training the pilots of Sukhoi warplanes.
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