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KUALA LUMPUR: Chinese made advanced jet trainer Falcon L-15 developed by China’s Jiangxi Hongdu Aviation Industry Group appeared in the Russian International Air Show, being held starting on August 18. The manufacturer claimed that the Falcon has a pneumatic platform with a three-axle and four-redundancy fly-by-wire flight control system. It claimed that the plane can simulate the flight performance of combat aircraft at a low cost, has the flight performance and maneuverability similar to the new generation of fighters and can meet the training demand of its pilots.
Reports suggests that the Falcon will attend the International Air Show in Dubai, United Arab Emirates this November and even perhaps make its debut in Langkawi but it depends on how we play our cards. I remembered in 2007, the Chinese make a late withdrawal from the Lima show for reasons unknown ranging from high entry cost to some talk of intrigue. I do not mind the Falcon taking part in Lima but any talk of buying the plane must be banished ASAP.
–Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (3)
What's wrong with buying chinese planes?? If it is good and modern, then why not?
Same reason we don't buy Aladdos, Cherrys and Geelys (OK, you suckas with the Naza Sutera sudah kena). They may be cheap....wait...that's all they are!
You especially do not buy an all new design with no pedigree and no service history.
In any case, we need YET another trainer like we need another hole in the head.
Every Chicom deal thus far has been politically driven.
We should consider it but we can add another batch of mb339 and hawk can be done cos of tech-support experience or others frm russian and european the best options but depend the cost, manpower, tech experince knowledge know how and cost and 1 thing we should get transfer technology
Marhalim: The reason I mentioned that we should banished any thoughts of buying the Chinese made trainers, is for a more realistic reason. We dont have enough money to have combat and trainer plane mix. I believe its cheaper to send our trainee pilots overseas for advanced flight training before going home for OCU. We should only conduct ab-initio and basic flight training locally for screening purposes, advanced flight training should be done with our allies so we can reduce the cost of having 3 or 4 types of aircraft so we can concentrate our limited budget for combat planes.