Israel poised to receive first Beechcraft T-6A trainer

[rock45]

Israel poised to receive first Beechcraft T-6A trainer
DATE:21/01/09
SOURCE:Flight International


By Arie Egozi

Israel will during February receive its first Beechcraft T-6A Texan II trainer, with the type having recently dubbed "Efroni" by its air force.
To be operated from the air force's flying academy at Hazerim airbase, the T-6A fleet will enable the service to begin phasing out its aged Zukit (Fouga CM-170) jet trainers, 35 of which are in use, according to Flight's MiliCAS database. Deliveries of its 25 new aircraft will continue until late 2010, with its acquisition also including the provision of two simulators.
The air force formally selected the T-6A last June, after rejecting suggestions to extend operations of the Zukit fleet until Israel Aerospace Industries could produce a military variant of the Aviation Technology Group Javelin very light jet, the development of which was suspended in late 2007.

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Israel's introduction of the T-6A follows previous orders for the type from the US Air Force/Navy (USAF example pictured above), and export customers Canada and Greece. Morocco in late 2007 outlined its intention to buy 24 enhanced T-6Bs, while Iraq last month requested the purchase of 20 A-model trainers via the US government's Foreign Military Sales mechanism.

Link
http://www.flightglobal.com/article...to-receive-first-beechcraft-t-6a-trainer.html

 

[SHERMAN]

ashame about the Javelin. What I dont see is a plan to replace the really ancient A-4 Skyhawks which are used in the advanced training of fighter pilots here. The advanced training squadron use to be able to operate as a ground attack sqadron in case of emergency, but that cant be done with A-4s today...

 

[rock45]

Training squadron

Sherman I can assure you dumb bomb racks can be mounted as well as rockets if need be. Israel isn't very open with their reserve assets and I don't blame them but can assume if need be:
Kfir - I thought 65/75 were converted to at least C-3 levels not sure if funding was spent on bring them up to C-7 standards. Only small numbers were sold and basically this project ended. Colombia is there most active publicly known customer
F-16 A/B - Israel has a bunch I'll say in the 30s upgraded to ACE standards with the EL-2030 radar and better AG weapons system then what came with the early block Vipers.
* My personnel opinion Israel would use the A/B Vipers in the place for the A-4s if need be.
Some F-4 must be in reserve not sure how many pilots from the 80s and early 90s are still flying and know the type?
F-15 - Still a kick ass fighter and Israel would never publicly announce their reserve or current numbers. One could track aircraft sales and get a rough number it's not brain surgery. For example one wouldn't know if an A model was replaced by a C or if a number of replacements were received. I would bet Israel has more F-15's & F-16s then one could track following aircraft sales, but that's just my opinion

 

[SHERMAN]

Sherman I can assure you dumb bomb racks can be mounted as well as rockets if need be

prop plane vs modern SAMs?!

 

[c/Commander]

The advanced training squadron use to be able to operate as a ground attack sqadron in case of emergency, but that cant be done with A-4s today...

A-4s are still quite capable as low-level attack aircraft, and seem to be working well as trainers. Until recently, even the US was using 1950s-era jets as trainers. No need to move away from what works.

 

[SHERMAN]

platforms get tired and slowly become dangerous and costly.

 

[rock45]

Old

Not sure if got what I was saying of course the A-4 could still be used but unlikely. And the days of Israels training squadrons being used as backup attack squadron maybe over like you mention, prop driven aircraft are even old SA-7 targets on a bad day.

New advance trainers are big money most are in the $20/25 mil per range with spares, training, etc packages added up.

Certain country's who don't need to turn out 30 more pilots a year may look elsewhere for that portion of their training. South Korea and others offer that type of training school and aircraft based.

England's RAF used to have Hawk trainers setup for air defenses during cold war times if things went bad.

I assume most Air Forces have some sort of plan to use trainers and other assets like in case situations turn bad.