#performancebasedlogistics

It costs Usd 2.27 million or Php 132.7 million per Year to maintain each FA-50PH Aircraft, and it's not even a true MRF yet

The Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) Company recently announced that they secured an approximately Usd 75 million Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) Contract for the FA-50PH Fighting Eagle Aircraft they made and delivered to the Philippine Air Force (PAF).

The Contract will be good for three Years, from 2026 to 2028 and will cover Logistics Support to ensure that the FA-50PH Fleet will have stable Operations and High Availability Rates. Assuming an Exchange Rate of 58.44 Philippine Pesos per United States (US) Dollar, then the Contract is worth 4.38 billion Pesos.

MY THOUGHTS:

Since the Contract is for three Years, then that means around Usd 25 million or Php 1.46 billion per Year to maintain the PAF’s entire, current FA-50PH Fleet. Since there are only 11 Aircraft to maintain for now, that boils down to Usd 2.27 million or 132.7 million for each FA-50PH per Year.

The Reports did not mention any Guaranteed Flight Hours (FH) per Airframe, but I think that there is, or at least there should be, and the number of FHs should be around at least 400 so it will match with the expected Cost per FH of the FA-50PH.

The North American Treaty Organization (NATO) Standard of FH per Year to maintain the Pilot’s Proficiency is I think around 180 if I remember it correctly, so 400 FH per Year per Aircraft means we can maintain around four Pilots per Aircraft per Year to NATO Pilot Proficiency Standards.

That’s four Pilots since the FA-50 seats two Pilots per Aircraft. This Contract illustrates how expensive it is to maintain Military Equipment, and with a dozen more FA-50s coming in, then expect that Cost per Year to double.

Also remember that the FA-50s are not “True” Multi-Role Fighter (MRF) Aircraft yet, MRFs are heavier, more sophisticated and thus even a lot more expensive to maintain properly per Year.