TSAMTO, March 15. On March 10, the official signing ceremony of the contract for the supply of the second batch of 16 TC RS-21 (national designation E.27) took place at the General Academy of the Spanish Air Force in San Javier (Murcia).
According to the Spanish Defense Ministry, the contract was signed by Colonel Alfonso Francisco Toran, Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Armaments and Materiel (DGAM), and Marcus Bucher, Executive Director of Pilatus. The event was attended by the Secretary of State for Defense of Spain Maria Amparo Valcarce.
After the signing of the contract, the total number of ordered TC RS-21s increased to 40 units, and the total purchase cost – up to 445 million euros. Thus, Spain became the largest PC-21 operator in Europe. As reported, 14 aircraft will be delivered to the General Academy of the Spanish Air Force. Two more PC-21s will be transferred to the Experimental Weapons and Logistics Center (CLAEX) Spanish Air Force. They will be used for research and experiments.
As reported by TSAMTO, in November 2019, the Spanish Ministry of Defense, following the results of the tender, selected the PC-21 turboprop aircraft as a replacement for 66 obsolete C-101 TCB, which had been used for about 40 years.
As part of the contract signed on January 30, 2020 with the Swiss company Pilatus worth 204 million euros ($247 million), the Spanish Air Force purchased 24 PC-21 TCBMs, as well as spare parts, an integrated ground training system, including simulators and related services.
The first pair of aircraft was transferred to the Spanish Air Force in September 2021, and the delivery of all 24 TCB was completed in July 2022. The aircraft became part of the 792nd Air Squadron, which is the basis of the training school of the General Academy of the Spanish Air Force. The RS-21s are designed to be used as a basic training vehicle for Spanish Air Force pilots. The training of cadets began in September 2022.
In December 2022, the Spanish government approved the signing by the Ministry of Defense of a contract for the purchase of 16 additional TC RS-21 for the country's Air Force. The purchase budget was set at 248 million euros. The delivery package will include 16 PC-21 TCBMs, 10 sets of suspended tanks, two cockpit simulators, an FFS (Full Flight Simulator) flight simulator with the appropriate infrastructure, 22 workstations of an automated training system, 15 AST (Aircraft System Trainer) licenses, seven mission planning and summarizing systems (MPDS), as well as logistics package.
The new contract will also allow the Air Force to replace the fleet of Pillan training aircraft (E-26 Sieve), which have been used for about 35 years at the initial stage of flight training.
Thus, after the delivery of a new batch of TCB, the Spanish Air Force will use 40 PC-21 aircraft at two stages of pilot training (initial and basic training).
