Instructors poised to undergo conversion as air force gets set for April delivery of NATO-standard fighter
The Czech air force's first two instructors to prepare for operations of the Saab Gripen will undergo conversion to the NATO-standard JAS39C fighter from early next month, ahead of the type's delivery to the Czech Republic in late April.
Eight Czech RSK MiG MiG-21 and Aero Vodochody L-159 pilots are now in training at the Swedish air force's Satenas airbase, with the first two of these poised to move to Saab's Linkoping site to complete their instruction. Conversion activities at the Swedish manufacturer's facility represent the last 10% of a training syllabus totalling around 60 flight hours and 80 sorties, with the majority of this work already undertaken at Satenas using Swedish air force JAS39A/Bs and simulators.
The delivery of the first of 12 single-seat C- and two twin-seat D-model Gripens will enable the Czech air force to rapidly replace its last MiG-21 interceptors in the quick-reaction alert role, says Czech instructor pilot Lt Col Petr Mikulenka. With the service lives of Prague's MiG-21s to expire within months, the Gripen will be made available for air defence duties by mid-year, he says. The aircraft will initially be armed with Raytheon's AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile, although Prague has also received US approval to equip the Gripen with the longer-range AIM-120C5 AMRAAM. However, the air force hopes to expand its future training activities - and procurement - into the air-to-ground arena to gain a multirole capability, Mikulenka says.
Twenty-one Czech air force pilots will be trained to fly the Gripen, which the service will operate under a 10-year lease deal with Sweden's Defence Materiel Administration (FMV). Each pilot will fly around 100h a year on the type, although the air force expects to further improve its capabilities by using the Gripen simulator that the service will also receive. Forty Czech air force maintainers are also receiving instruction at Satenas and the Swedish air force's Halmstad training site.
A further 18 students are now training on the Gripen at Satenas, including 13 from the Swedish air force and five from Hungary, which is also acquiring 14 Gripens under a lease-buy deal with the FMV. Budapest's first remanufactured aircraft was rolled out at Linkoping last month, with deliveries to start in early 2006 (Flight International, 1-7 February).
CRAIG HOYLE / SATENAS AIRBASE
Source: Flight International
