CAP55: Kuwaiti Hornet Vacancy Still On Sight

11 April 2020

Kuwaiti F/A-18C Hornet (photo : Alastair McBean)

Despite the global outbreak of coronavirus which originated from Wuhan, China and that Italy, being the lead integrator for the Kuwaiti Eurofighter Typhoon project has been greatly affected by the outbreak, the build up towards Kuwaiti Air Force (KAF) having the first batch of its Eurofighter seems to be progressing well.

The KAF is undertaking a major modernization and expansion of its fighter arm, replacing 39 McDonnellDDouglas F/A-18C/Ds Hornets with 28 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and 28 Eurofighter Typhoons, meaning that induction of the new aircraft into service will need new pilots, while the existing Hornet pilots will need to undergo conversion training either on-board the Super Hornet or the Eurofighter.

The first seven Kuwaiti Typhoon pilots had graduated from their Aeronautica Militare Italian (AMI) flight training courses on July 5, 2019. These are experienced Kuwaiti pilots who have prior experience flying their Desert Hornet.

As part of the conversion training, they flew with F-2000 (Italian designation of the Typhoon) operational conversion unit, the 20th OCU Group (Operational Conversion Unit) of the 4th Wing (4° Stormo 20° Gruppo) at Grosseto, but the graduation ceremony was held at Lecce/Galatina, home to the International Flying School/61° Stormo which flies the Leonardo M346 Master.

These officers will now instruct other Kuwaiti pilots.

The pilot build up training continues with another operational conversion course for 5  more Kuwaiti pilots, some of them are Hornet pilots which began on January 20, 2020 at the 4° Stormo 20° Gruppo.

Kuwaiti F/A-18C Hornet (photo: Yousif Al Thawadi)

Three pilots of the latest batch were actually freshly minted pilots who had undergo flight training  at the International Flight Training School, to obtain the Military Pilot license and attend the pre-operational flight course. Two of the five Kuwaiti instead, were veterans with experience of flying the KAF Hornet prior to  operational conversion course.

To satisfy Kuwaiti and Qatari orders, all four national production lines will manufacture parts, with final assembly to take place at Caselle and Warton respectively.

The delivery of these two orders, expected from late 2020 to 2023 for Kuwait and from 2022 to an unspecified date in the mid-2020s for Qatar, will conclude the 623-aircraft PoR for the partner nations and export customers.

And so what does this means to the proposed acquisition of Kuwaiti F/A-18Cs for the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) as its Interim Strike Fighter (ISF)?

Relationship with Middle Eastern allies becomes strain during the stewardship of the former Defence Minister. The fall of Tun Mahathir led Pakatan Harapan Government has reset the international relationship between Malaysian and countries in the Middle East as well as India.

Even the new Foreign Minister has reestablished the relationship with countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. With such effort, the RMAF ISF proposal might gain traction again especially with the progress that the Kuwaiti has made on their Typhoon project.

It is likely that the targeted delivery dateline for Typhoon on September 2020 might be achieved after all despite the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic. This also means that there will be Kuwaiti Hornets being left vacant.

If nothing is being done right now, it is afraid that private contractors especially those involved in Air adversary or Red Air service would quickly their hands on these pristine but battle hardened strike fighters.

(MFH)