BRENDAN SOBIE / TOKYO
Replacement for T-3 delivers improved performance with switch to Rolls-Royce engine
The Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) plans to begin training pilots early next year in the Fuji Heavy Industries T-7 primary trainer, a new version of the Fuji T-3.
The Japan Defence Agency (JDA) says T-7 operational testing was completed in January, but the first batch of aircraft will not enter service until the end of the 2003 fiscal year next March.
The JASDF took delivery of the first two T-7s, also known as the T-3 Kai, in September last year. These were moved in April from operational testing at Gifu air base to the Hofu Kita air base, the first of two primary training sites due to receive T-7s.
The JDA has purchased 11 more aircraft for delivery in FY03, three of which have been handed over. It says all delivered aircraft will remain inactive until the JASDF has received 13 of them.
The JDA has already awarded Fuji a ´2.14 billion ($20 million) contract to build 10 more T-7s for delivery in FY04. The JDA plans to acquire nine more T-7s this year for delivery in FY05, but is still negotiating this contract with Fuji. These nine are earmarked to replace T-3s at Shizuhama air base.
The JASDF has a requirement for 49 T-7s, but the final 17 are not in the JDA's budget. Any T-7s to be delivered in FY06 must be acquired in FY04. The procurement plan for the latter will be set in December after consultation with Japan's finance ministry."We've decided on the total number, but haven't decided how to procure [the final 17] aircraft at this moment," says the JDA.
The T-7 is a slightly faster, longer and heavier version of the T-3. Its better performance is driven party by the switch to a Rolls-Royce 250-B17F turboprop, in place of the T-3's Lycoming IGSO-480-A1F3 piston engine. Both trainers are tandem seat with a wingspan of about 10m (33ft).
Fuji beat a Pilatus PC-7 proposal in 2000 to win a second JDA competition to select a replacement for the T-3. Fuji also won the original competition in 1998, but this contract was revoked following a corruption scandal.
Source: Flight International
