Philippine Air Force badly in need of supersonic jetfighters

Philippine Air Force badly in need of supersonic jetfighters

• Written by  Super User
• Sunday, 01 July 2012

From 1947 to date, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) had a total inventory of 1,028 aircraft, consisting of 251 fighter planes or equivalent to 20 squadrons, 203 transports, 372 trainer aircraft and 202 helicopters of various types, making the PAF as a force to reckon with.

Over the years, however, the PAF had decommissioned all its jetfighter-interceptors, the last one in 2005 with the retirement of its F-5A/B war jet without any replacement, leaving the country’s airspace virtually defenseless without a single jet interceptor left in its arsenal.

Today, the PAF has fewer than 200 aircraft of various types, minus the jetfighters “guarding” Philippine airspace at a time when the country needed it most as a deterrent force against foreign intrusion, particularly by China in the case of the Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) ownership, which is well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ)..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/metro-section/item/923-philippine-air-force-badly-in-need-of-supersonic-jetfighters