Adversary air services provider Top Aces is hoping to secure new business in Asia, building on momentum in North America and Europe.
Speaking to FlightGlobal at the Singapore air show, the company’s vice-president of international business development James McGovern said Top Aces has seen strong interest from potential customers at the Changi Exhibition Center.
“This is our first time breaking into the Asia-Pacific region and the markets that are here,” he notes. “This morning has been a revolving door of very senior leaders from all different corners of the Pacific region.
“It’s been a really good show so far,” he adds.
McGovern has existing ties to Singapore, having commanded the US Air Force (USAF) Operations Group at Mountain Home AFB, where the Republic of Singapore Air Force maintains a permanently based squadron of Boeing F-15SG fighters.
While at the Singapore air show, McGovern says Top Aces held talks with Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, which he describes as promising.
”It’s a very active defence market environment here, and we want to be a part of it,” he says.
Top Aces previously provided an aggressor air service to the Royal Australian Air Force from 2017-2019.
The company claims to be the only commercial operator using fourth-generation fighters anywhere in the world: Lockheed Martin F-16s modified with Top Aces’ proprietary Advanced Aggressor Mission System (AAMS), which allows its jets to replicate fifth-generation threats.
Those aircraft were procured second-hand from the Israeli air force and feature the distinctive desert camouflage livery and Top Aces’ red star tail flash. The F-16 fleet provides dedicated aggressor air support to USAF squadrons flying the Lockheed F-35A.
The high-performance flight profile of the F-16, combined with Top Aces’ AAMS package, allows the fourth-generation fighter to pose a credible threat to the more advanced F-35.
”What we want to do is be able to make it challenging for them, so that they don’t just get an auto win every time,” McGovern says.
In addition to F-16s, the Top Aces fleet of more than 150 tactical aircraft also includes the Douglas A-4N Skyhawk and Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet. The company’s A-4N fleet has also been equipped with the AAMS, while Top Aces is embarking on a developmental project to fit it in the Alpha Jet.
The company offers its various airframes to customers based on what skills they want to drill for their pilots.
“If you want to be in a challenging dog fighting within-visual-range scenario, the F 16 is obviously at the top end of that pile,” McGovern says. ”However, we’ve also got dedicated, experienced pilots that have punished blue air mistakes within-visual-range in Alpha Jets and A-4s.”
For scenarios seeking to test a pilot’s ability to react to a massed enemy force, McGovern says the Alpha Jet offers a cost-effective option for high volume sortie generation. The Alpha Jet also offers another unique option: the ability to represent massed volleys of incoming cruise missiles, such as the long-range Kalibr weapon that Russia has fired en masse into Ukrainian cities.
“The Alpha Jet happens, at speed, low altitude, and with some jamming capability, to look amazingly similar to a Kalibr-class cruise missile,” McGovern notes. “These are the kind of training scenarios that we’re ready to do on a moment’s notice, depending on the customer demand.”
While the Top Aces F-16 fleet is currently operating in North America, the company’s director of business development in Europe says there is significant demand across the Atlantic, where Top Aces offers adversary air services with the A-4N.
“Our focus at the moment is trying to bring the F-16 from the US to service the growing European market, and then potentially to other regions,” says David Bradshaw, a former UK Royal Air Force air commodore.
Bradshaw recently helped Top Aces score a 10-year, €420 million ($490 million) deal with Germany to extend a long-running service contract. The latest agreement will provide operational training across the German air force, army and navy using both A-4N Skyhawks and Alpha Jets.
Top Aces has provided adversary air services to the Bundeswehr since 2015. The new contract extension will see that arrangement run on through 2035.
Although he declines to reveal any specifics around plans to grow the Top Aces F-16 fleet, McGovern notes that there is an ample supply of the single-engined jets operating today, many of which are set to be phased out in the coming years as countries modernise their air forces.
“There are a lot of F-16s out there in the world,” he says. “Those F 16 fleets will come and become available for purchase and we believe that there is a long-term growth capability in the F-16 going forward.”
Bradshaw says the company’s sterling safety record is an important reason for its continued success. Since its inception, Top Aces has logged for than 150,000 flying hours without a serious safety incident.
The entire Top Aces operation is certificated by Canadian civil aviation regulator Transport Canada – undergoing a level of scrutiny similar to that of a commercial airline.
