Posted on 01/25/2011 6:01:02 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
S. Korea rolls out armed version of T-50 trainer jet
2011-01-24 18:27
South Korea on Monday rolled out the first armed version of its T-50 supersonic trainer aircraft, designed to carry out entry-level tactical training missions, according to the state military acquisition agency.
The armed variant of the T-50, the nation’s first homegrown trainer jet, is intended to train fledgling military pilots on air-to-air and air-to-surface missions before their full operational deployment, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said.
The TA-50 can mount precision-guided weapons such as AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and TGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles, according to DAPA officials.
The final unit of the TA-50 will be delivered by 2012. DAPA officials refuse to confirm the total number of the TA-50s to be put into operation, citing security reasons.
From 2013, the country will also begin deploying a more heavily armed version of the TA-50. Named the FA-50, the multi-role fighter jet is designed for light attack combat missions, officials said.
Jointly developed by Korea Aerospace Industries, the country’s sole aircraft maker, and U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin, South Korea unveiled the T-50 “Golden Eagle” in 2005.
In order to strengthen aerial defense capabilities and develop the local aviation industry, the country has spent 2.2 trillion won ($1.96 billion) on the T-50 project over eight years, starting in 1997.
After the first T-50 was delivered in December 2005, the Air Force began training with the T-50 in April 2007. The T-50 has a maximum speed of mach 1.5, with a maximum range of 800 nautical miles.
By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldm.com)
Didn’t I see this in “Top Gun”? (it was supposed to be a MiG back then).
lol.
This is a replacement for the Northrop F-5E/F (no longer built), which the T-50 resembles.
It’s a replacement for the F-5E/F, the plane used in Top Gun to represent Mig’s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAI_T-50_Golden_Eagle
If money was no object, this would be in the inventory. Anyone know enough gun math to determine how many bursts you get with a three barrel 20mm gatling gun with 207 rounds?
I’m betting a twitch, would blow the whole load.
Sweet! Maybe NASA needs to grab a squadron of these for their Astronauts? There was a report that they are cutting the T-38 fleet.
That’s about the standard number of rounds for a lot of fighters these days.
If my memory serves me I believe the cyclic rate of fire on a 7 barreled gatling gun is around 6,000 rounds per minute. Which is 100 rounds per second, so yeah, so maybe 4 to 5 seconds of sustained fire.
Gunner
A fair few. Because the gun's interia it takes a while to spin up to speed. So for the first half second you can actually spit out as many or more rounds from a fixed single barrel
Probably so. One may not even get within visual range of the enemy, unless the missile misses, or you don’t have enough power to overtake.
Thanks, some control would be good, so you could knock off a few slow movers, or do a little coyote hunting.
I remember an interesting demo at an Eglin AFB firepower demo in the late sixties. IIRC it was 100 rounds in an early Gatling gun, then WW1 machine gun, WW2 machine gun up through the six barrel gatling gun. Seems like the first one took about thirty seconds, and the last was a one second explosion.
I believe the A-50 20mm gun is based on the XM301 three barrel 20mm gatling gun developed by General Dynamics for the now defunct Commanche ARH.
The XM301 was supposed to have a dual firing rate of either 750 or 1500 RPM, which if carried over to the A-50 gatling would give the TA-50 either 16.6 or 8.3 seconds of fire.
The rate of fire from the A-50 is only speculation on my part, however.
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