TSAMTO, January 19. The Egyptian state-owned company Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) has confirmed the signing of an agreement with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) for the licensed production of training aircraft in the country.
As reported by Janes.com, in a statement published by AOI on January 16, it is reported that its chairman Mokhtar Abdel-Latif met with a delegation from the Republic of Korea, which included members of parliament and senior officials of KAI and Hanwha Aerospace.
The parties discussed the implementation of the AOI agreement with KAI on "localization of the production technology of a promising training aircraft designed to meet the needs of the Egyptian Air Force and its export to African and Arab countries."
The aircraft will be manufactured at the AOI aviation plant in Helwan, which previously assembled Chinese K-8E training aircraft for the Egyptian Air Force under license. It was reported that in May 2010, when the 120th and last K-8E was delivered, Egypt produced more than 94% of the components for this aircraft.
Recall that the Arab Organization for Industrialization and Korea Aerospace Industries signed an agreement on the production of a new training aircraft on December 1, 2022. Although the press release did not specify the specific model of the aircraft, it is obvious that it refers to the FA-50/T-50 Golden Eagle light fighter/TCB.
For referenceAs previously reported by TSAMTO, at the beginning of 2021 it became known that the Egyptian Air Force plans to purchase new basic and advanced flight training aircraft to replace the fleet of obsolete machines.
At that time, it was known that the German company Grob Aircraft was negotiating with the Egyptian government for the purchase of G-120TP turboprop TCB by Cairo.
It was noted that this is a logical step for the Egyptian Air Force, which is well acquainted with the manufacturer Grob Aircraft, since since the 2000s they have been operating a fleet of 74 G-115 TCB at the Bilbais Airbase as part of the 3rd and 5th squadrons of the 101st training Wing.The American company Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) offered the A-29 Super Tucano light combat aircraft as a training vehicle, as well as as a replacement for about 50 EMB-312 Tucano attack aircraft acquired by Egypt in the 1980s. These aircraft are also based at the Bilbase in as part of the 83rd, 84th and 85th squadrons of the 201st training Wing.
The new A-29 "Super Tucano" was also proposed to replace more than 100 K-8E Karakorum advanced flight training jet aircraft at El Minya Air Base as part of the 28th and 29th squadrons of the 201st Training Wing.
The Italian Leonardo group offered the M-346 "Master" jet TCB or its reduced version of the M-345 to replace the K-8E.
Czech Aero Vodochody offered its new TCB L-39NG.In December 2021, it also became known that Egypt is negotiating the acquisition of 24 M-346 "Master" jet training aircraft and a version of the light combat aircraft of the Italian Leonardo group with a total cost of about 500 million euros.
However, since then, the media has not reported on any progress in negotiations on this program.
