President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday visited the Air Force Flight Training Command at Kaohsiung’s Gangshan Air Base in a bid to bolster the nation’s capability to train fighter pilots.
The command’s upgrade from being an Air Force Academy subordinate to a headquarters under the service came a day after the Taitung-based 7th Flight Training Wing was reflagged as the 7th Tactical Fighter Wing.
The creation of the training unit would speed up the nation’s combat pilot training and qualification process, Tsai said during an inspection, adding that the command is expected to function seamlessly with the academy sharing the same base.
Photo: RITCHIE B. TONGO, EPA-EFE
The Flight Training Command’s founding marks a new epoch in the air force’s pilot training program, switching from utilizing three aircraft types, Beechcraft T-34, AIDC AT-3 and F-5 trainers, to a two-stage one utilizing Beechcraft T-34s and AIDC T-5 Brave Eagles, the service said.
Brave Eagles — the indigenous developed advanced trainer jet — would provide a better training platform for pilots expected to handle modern high-performance military aircraft being introduced, including the Lockheed Martin F-16V, it said.
Decreasing the number of trainer aircraft types will enable a reduction in valuable instruction time spent on familiarizing trainees across three distinct platforms, air force flight instructor Major Wang Tzu-hung (王次宏) said.
The focus of the flight training program is to produce a sufficient number of trainers with dual qualifications as instructors and fighter pilots, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Huang Wen-hsuan (黃文軒), a trainer of trainers, said.
The new fighter pilot training program would see pilots initially receive training on foundational flight skills, formation flying and basic air maneuvers in T-34s, then transition to T-5s for interception and advanced air combat maneuvers, he said.
The air force has seven combatant wings utilizing AIDC F-CK-1s, Dassault Mirage 2000s and Lockheed Martin F-16 jets in addition to Flight Training Command and Songshan Air Base Command, which operates the presidential airplane.
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