ST. LOUIS, Dec. 11, 1996 -- Air Force representatives from the Philippines have concluded a four-day, seven-flight evaluation of the F/A-18 Hornet at the Naval Air Warfare Center-China Lake, Calif.
The five Philippine pilots (Brig. Gen. De Los Santos, Col. Cruz, Capt. Bartolome, Col. Katindoy and Maj. Nemenzo) flew a two-seat U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D aircraft from Hornet squadron VMFA-225 Nov. 17-20 at China Lake. Prior to that, they underwent F/A-18 flight simulator training at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis.
The flights at China Lake included three missions for familiarization and handling qualities, three missions for air-to-air intercepts and one mission for sea surveillance and night attack performance. The fifth flight of the evaluation concluded with an arrested landing, the first for a Philippine pilot in an F/A-18.
The Philippine pilots said they were impressed with several of the F/A-18's features and capabilities. These include the performance of the F/A-18's APG-73 radar and targeting FLIR, as well as the power of its F404-GE-402 enhanced performance engines.
The Philippine pilots were able to utilize the F/A-18's ability to fly at high angles-of-attack and maneuver the aircraft tightly through high g turns.
The last mission of the evaluation was the longest at 1.7 hours. The Philippine pilot wore night vision goggles throughout the flight as the Hornet conducted a simulated sea surveillance and maritime strike mission over a Pacific Ocean range off the coast of Los Angeles.
"This flight evaluation went very smoothly and covered a broad spectrum of F/A-18 missions," said Gary R. (Bud) Mitchell, vice president-general manager for international F/A-18 programs at McDonnell Douglas. "Once again, the Hornet put in a flawless performance."
He praised the efforts of a combined F/A-18 team from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, prime contractor McDonnell Douglas, principal subcontractor Northrop Grumman, radar supplier Hughes and targeting FLIR supplier Loral.
The Philippine government is one of five countries evaluating the F/A-18 as a possible solution for air force modernization. The others are Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Austria.
Pilots from the Czech Republic completed an eight-flight evaluation of the F/A-18 at China Lake just after the Philippine flight evaluation. Austria concluded a 10-flight evaluation of the Hornet in October in the United States and plans a second evaluation of the F/A-18 between May and October 1997 in Austria.
Current Hornet customers are the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, as well as the air forces of Canada, Australia, Spain, Kuwait, Finland, Switzerland, Malaysia and Thailand. More than 1,320 of these aircraft have been delivered worldwide.
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