Aermacchi is offering Malaysia a package of new MB339CDs and MB339A upgrades to meet an urgent need for more advanced trainers. The Malaysian air force now operates about half of its 16 MB339As and requires at least 12 new aircraft to replace the type and those BAE Systems Hawks that have been damaged or destroyed.
Chief executive Carmelo Cosentino says Malaysia’s current MB339As must undergo a service life extension in 2006-7 or will have to be retired, and that the Italian company has offered to upgrade these as an interim solution before supplying at least 12 new MB339CDs. Aermacchi has already partnered with local company Piertrade, which seeks to maintain the new aircraft and potentially help upgrade the existing fleet.
“They can’t afford to wait for the [Aermacchi] M346,” says Cosentino. “We have been asked [to offer] the MB339 and there is some interest in this country for the CD.” The Malaysian air force evaluated the latest version of the aircraft at last month’s LIMA air show in Langkawi.
However, industry sources say Malaysia lacks the budget to acquire more advanced trainers within the next two years at least, as funds set aside to acquire 17 used MB339CBs from New Zealand were instead used to buy nine more Pilatus PC-7 MkIIs. Kuala Lumpur is likely to acquire another seven PC-7 MkIIs before it addresses the advanced trainer requirement, they add.
Sources also question Cosentino’s claim that Malaysia could retire its remaining Hawks and deliver its entire training syllabus using only PC-7s and MB339CDs. Malaysia is more likely to buy a more advanced trainer such as the M346, Hawk 128 or Korea Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin T-50, they say, with one manufacturer noting: “The jump from the MB339 to the [Boeing] F/A-18, [RSK MiG] MiG-29 or [Sukhoi] Su-30 is too big.”
However, Cosentino notes: “The MB339 is a good compromise between advanced and reasonably priced.”
BRENDAN SOBIE/LANGKAWI
Source: Flight International
