Combat aircraft

The now

deactivated

Esquadra 103

(EICPAC) that

operated the

Alpha Jet until

January was the

oldest active unit

in the Portuguese

Air Force.

Paulo Mata

PORTUGUESE PILOTS TO TRAIN IN THE US

FOLLOWING THE PHASEOUT of

its Alpha Jet  eet on January 31,

the Portuguese Air Force will train

its future  ghter pilot students

in the US.

With no timely decision made on

a new  eet to replace the Alpha Jet,

the Portuguese defense ministry

published a document on February

15 recognizing the US Air Force

as ‘the only entity presently  t

to provide [ ghter pilot training]

services, within national and NATO

procedures and tactics, that enable

appropriate interoperability

with allied countries’. The same

document also de nes the funding

reserved for this purpose in the

military budget, from 2018 to 2026.

This means that the T-38C — now

in USAF colors — will supersede

the Alpha Jet, which had replaced

the T-38A in Portuguese service

almost 25 years ago.

Portugal has graduated a limited

number of pilots in the US for the

past few decades, but

previously retained its

own advanced training

competences.

Basic  ight training will still be

carried out within the Portuguese

Air Force by Esquadras 802 ( ying

upgraded DHC Chipmunks) and

101 (on the SOCATA TB30 Epsilon)

at Sintra air base. Helicopter and

transport aircraft courses will also

be conducted domestically.

Paulo Mata

[NEWS] WORLD

20 May 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

20-24 World News C.indd 20 21/03/2018 12: