Fábrica Argentina de Aviones (FAdeA) is expected to roll out a new version of its IA-63 Pampa III jet trainer on 10 October, which is also the company’s 86th anniversary, in Cordoba.
Among the attendees will be Argentinian defence minister Agustin Rossi, numerous company and government officials, and 1,500 workers.
FAdeA is expected to produce an initial batch of 18 of the new aircraft, which will be powered by Honeywell TFE731-40-2N geared turbofans. Ultimately, the company hopes to build a total of 100 Pampa IIIs for Argentina and export customers. Some of those will be configured as an attack variant.
According to local press reports, the Pampa III is designed to avoid the use of any British-built components and this has included replacing the type's Martin-Baker Mk10 ejection seat with a Russian model.
While UK companies are being excluded because of a political dispute over the ownership of the Falkland Islands – the two countries fought a brief war over the South Atlantic islands in 1982 – foreign companies such as Israel Aerospace Industries, Elta Systems, Rockwell Collins, Liebherr and Sagem are supplying components for the Pampa III.
The Pampa III is expected to make its first flight in December 2013.
The Pampa III is the third iteration of the venerable trainer that was originally designed with assistance from the now-defunct German airframer Dornier Flugzeugwerke. Eighteen examples of the original design were built for the Argentinian air force in the late 1980s, while a second batch of modernised Pampa IIs was built in 2006.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
