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Aviation History
1976
1976 - 2556.PDF
1368 AVIATION JORDAN resources whether we can have a specialised attack heli copter." A great many of the possible or likely battle areas for Jordanian troops provide .little in the way of natural cover for anti-tank helicopters: "There again is a training task for us, teaching pilots to use the terrain." Growth of Alia, the Royal Jordanian airline, has been remarkable over the past few years. How does the King see its future? "Alia is our ambassador to the world. Its success has been most satisfying and services are expanding throughout the area, in Europe, to the Far East. North and South America. Similarly, Jordan World is beginning to serve in the area of freight-hauling and hopefully will expand in the time to come." Super-fast growth can of course bring its own problems, of which Alia must have had its share. But as King Hussein says: "I have always insisted that quality of service and higher standards of safety and reliability be our constant targets." In opening up new international routes, a prime objec tive has been to make it easier for expatriate Jordanians to rediscover their home country. "None of our neighbouring countries is doing this to anything like the same extent," says the King, "so we are largely serving them as well." To round off this royal introduction to perhaps the most complete aviation community in the Arab world, I enquire about the importance of mobility to the businessman and the part played by Alia subsidiary and Learjet operator Arab Wings. Hussein says that "business flying is quite a recent venture in Jordan, and in the area. Arab Wings has made a most successful beginning, most of its work apparently being to the Gulf carrying businessmen who cannot wait for scheduled flights." He hopes that the operation will further expand to provide quicker and easier means of communication for the private traveller as well as the business executive. Royal Jordanian Air Force The front line of the Royal Jordanian Air Force is to be expanded in the medium term to 176 fixed-wing aircraft, the number of Northrop F-5s being increased and the Lockheed F-104A Starfighters being phased out of service and replaced by a new intercepter. A completely new ground-based air-defence system, based on 14 Improved Hawk missile batteries and Vulcan guns, has been bought from the United States to replace Tigercat missiles, which have already been sold. The transport force is being expanded with Casa C.212 Aviocars and more Hercules, and in the longer term it is likely that a force of anti-tank and troop-carrying helicopters will be bought. The reported order for four Sikorsky S-76s is however not firm. As with all aviation in Jordan, expansion is the inescapable theme which runs through this relatively small but efficient and highly respected air force. The economy of the country and military history make the RJAF a force of quality rather than great quantity, but there can be little doubt about the professionalism with which its tasks are approached. Setbacks to King Hussein's long-held desire for a comprehensive air force, and indeed the military necessity for one, have been numerous. The best known is undoubtedly the almost complete destruction by Israel of the Hunter force during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Since then the force has been painstakingly rebuilt, but with almost entirely American equipment, rather than British. ", RJAF roles are conventional enough, and reflected in the choice of equipment. For^air defence there is a single squadron of F-104 Starfighters comprising 18 single-seat As and four two-seat B trainers. These were supplied by the United States in 1969 after that country had earlier refused to return five Starfighters donated in 1967 and FLIGHT International, 6 November 1976 then suddenly withdrawn two days before the outbreak of the Six-Day War. The F-104s make up No 9 Sqn at the main RJAF operational base at H-5 (Prince Hassan Air Base but normally referred to as H-5 because of its proximity to the number 5 pumping station on the disused pipeline which leads down to Haifa). The most numerous combat type in the RJAF is the F-5, there being 58 examples in the country at the time of Flight's visit. Some 24 are F-5E Tiger lis in 17 Sqn. also based at H-5 and engaged mainly in the air-defence role. Twelve Cessna T-37s, on lease from the US Air Force, ore used for advanced training at King Hussein Air Base, Mafraq, in the north of the country There are 30 F-5As and four F-5Bs, the former making up a pool of aircraft for Nos 1 and 2 Sqn and the latter being shared between these and the Tiger squadron. All the earlier models, transferred from the Imperial Iranian Air Force as F-5Es were taken on there, are based at King Hussein Air Base. Mafraq, which is the RJAF training centre. Also at Mafraq are the 12 Cessna T-37s of 6 Sqn, which are on lease from the United States Air Force. The third main base, and air force headquarters, is at Amman airport, where the C-130s and Aviocars are stationed. Two C-130BS and three Fairchild C-119Ks were received under the US Military Aid Programme in 1972; the C-119s are no longer flyable and stand awaiting disposal at Amman, but the Hercules fleet was due to be doubled in size by September with the arrival of two more refurbished aircraft. They are used for all the logistic transport work as well as for any parachute training, while the C.212s fly in the liaison role. Amman is also home of the 16 Alouettes of the RJAF, although at least two aircraft are always deployed to the other bases for search-and- rescue purposes. Of the total, six are SA.316Bs and four are SA.316CS. The only other aircraft in the RJAF are a VIP transport Boeing 727 and King Hussein's personal Riley Dove, both based at King Abdullah Air Base, Amman. In conjunction with the plans to increase the number of F-5Es over the next two or three years, probably also to include a few two-seat F-5Fs, the RJAF is building three new air bases and some satellite strips. These will be rather farther to the east than the current ones in order to have a little more warning of attack—it is only three minutes' airborne time from the Israeli border to Mafraq, for example. One of the new bases will almost certainly be in the south of the country, towards the border with Saudi Arabia. The present air-defence ground environment is based on Plessey and Marconi surveillance radars which give coverage of almost the entire country. The new air-defence system—to be operated at least initially by the RJAF, which is in any case part of the army—will be arranged in a belt across the country as well as being used for point defence of airfields. It is proposed that the ground environment should be updated and more highly automated, and it seems that Hughes is in a relatively strong position to sell a "mini-Nadge" system to Jordan. The value of a contract could be in the region of $35 million. Pilot training in the. RJAF until about 18 months ago had been conducted largely overseas, in Britain, the USA, Pakistan and Greece, for example. But now it is all done in
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