Light Combat Aircraft In The Asia Pacific

The demand for relatively lower cost trainer / light attack aircraft in Asian Pacific has been an attractive proposition to countries needing to upgrade legacy aircraft while providing dual-mission capability.

- Justin Bronk

 The combat airpower market in the vast Asia Pacific region has been characterised by two major trends in the past decade and a half. The first is the success of the Russian Sukhoi Su27/30/35 Flanker family of heavy fighters, and the second is an explosion of demand for cheaper aircraft which can perform the dual function of fighter lead-in trainer and light attack aircraft. Light combat aircraft such as the Yakovlev 130 / Aermacchi M-346, BAE Systems Hawk 208/9 and KAI T-50 have found great success amongst the smaller air forces in Asia Pacific. For many nations which face internal insurgencies, and whose armed forces are generally organised for relatively low-level combat operations, light combat aircraft make ideal candidates to exercise airpower in the region.

In general, light combat aircraft are characterised by high subsonic speeds, significantly smaller size and lower operating costs when compared to frontline fast jet types, and the ability to employ an impressive arsenal of high tech air-to-ground and sometimes air-to-air weaponry from multiple external hardpoints. Since most are derived from lead-in fighter trainers, they typically possess forgiving flight characteristics and are designed to be intuitive for new pilots to master, which reduces training burdens and contributes to keeping accident rates lower than for the majority of their supersonic fast jet counterparts. However, on the flip side they are unable to offer the aerial deterrence capabilities of true fast jets against potential state opponents being too slow, unable to fly at extremely high altitudes, mount powerful radars or manoeuvre successfully with fast jets in a within visual range combat scenario.