The Argentina Ministry of Defense (Ministerio de Defensa) reports that the FAdeA (Fábrica Argentina de Aviones “Brigadier San MartÃn” S.A.) finalized the transfer and delivery of the sixth IA-63 Pampa III trainer aircraft to the VI Brigade of the Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Argentina, or simply FAA), located in the Buenos Aires town of Tandil. The trainer aircraft with combat capability, identified with the registration A-705 (1033), will be destined to fulfill control functions of the border airspace.
This incorporation is the third of the three units that the FAdeA, led today by Mirta Iriondo, had promised to deliver to the FAA, and joins the five aircraft that were already awarded to said military unit between 2018 and 2019, thus forming a modern and optimal weapon system that enables pilot training through two-seater advanced training and light attack ships. The Argentine Ministry of Defence reached a deal worth $30.3 million with FAdeA for the production of an additional three Phase 3 Pampas in February 2018, after the deal was first revealed in December 2017.
The IA-63 Pampa is an advanced jet trainer with combat capability, produced in Argentina by Fabrica Militar de Aviones (now FAdeA) with assistance from Dornier of Germany. Although influenced by the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet design, the Pampa differs in being a smaller aircraft, it is also single-engined and has straight supercritical wings rather than the swept ones of the Alpha Jet. It is constructed mainly of aluminium alloy, with carbon-fibre used for components such as the air intakes. The crew of two sit in tandem under a single-piece clamshell canopy. The avionics systems are also simpler than the Alpha Jet, which has an important secondary combat role. The Pampa prototype first flew on 6 October 1984.
Argentina
