Manila: The Philippines is close to having its first fighter aircraft in nearly four decades after payment terms for the acquisition of twelve F/A 50s from South Korea were approved.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Philippines government and South Korea had already come to an agreement over the terms of acquisition of the F/A 50s.

F/A stands for Fighter/Attack aircraft.

The $442 million (Dhs1.6 billion) F/A 50 deal, which was rumoured to be in the works as early as two years ago, was a government-to-government transaction. Being a direct transaction between South Korea and the Philippines, the deal did not undergo the normal bidding process as required in such high-budget acquisitions.

Valte said the approval was taken to mean that President Benigno Aquino III’s questions about the transaction had been addressed.

“Usually, the approval of the mode of payment for the jets means the department concerned has sufficiently answered the President’s questions, or the kinks have been ironed out,” Valte said on state-run radio dzRB.

On October 13, 2013, Aquino visited South Korea and signed several bilateral agreements, including the acquisition of military hardware. There were reports that among the deals being worked out at that time was the finalisation of the fighter/attack aircraft deal but, apparently, this did not fall through.

On February 21, however, Defence Undersecretary Fernando Manalo announced that the negotiations for the fighter deal with Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) had been completed and that the formal signing of the contract would take place in the second week of March.

Manalo said that once the contract is signed in March, the delivery of the first batch of the brand new aircraft to the Philippine Air Force (PAF) could take place in August 2015.

Flying at Mach 1.5, or one and a half times the speed of sound, the F/A 50 would not be the fastest aircraft that the PAF has had its inventory. During the mid-1970s, the PAF was flying the Mach 2-capable F-8 Crusader.

However, this particular aircraft was retired in the early 1990s due to their ageing airframes. They were bought used from the United States. The F-8s purchase in 1977 was the last fighter acquisition made by the Philippines.

In 1967, the Philippines acquired F-5 Freedom Fighters from the US. A total of 37 of this type of aircraft was acquired and were extensively used by the PAF in combat operations. The last of the F-5s were retired in 2005 after four decades of service.

Most of the combat operations that PAF aircraft were involved in were counter-insurgency duties, this is probably the reason why the F/A 50 it plans to purchase has ground attack capabilities.

The Philippine military said it plans to acquire new ground-based radars for use together with the F/A 50s.

The F/A-50 would be the most modern aircraft in the PAF’s arsenal. Like the F-5 Freedom Fighter and F-8 Crusader, they can be armed with modern versions of air-to-air missiles and automatic cannons.

The F/A-50 can also be armed with anti-ship missiles and is expected to provide a serious deterrent to surface as well as airborne threats.