MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FAU brass explore options for the purchase of training aircraft

The FAU needs to replace the A-37 Dragonfly model still in service

A delegation of the Uruguayan Air Force (FAU) has been reported to have visited AERO Vodochody's facilities in the Czech Republic to delve into the specifics of the L-39NG advanced trainer, according to the aircraft manufacturer's social media.

Heading the Uruguayan team was FAU Chief General Luis H. de León. The Uruguayan pilots were briefed on flying this particular model over the weekend.
On February 8, Uruguay's military attaché to the Czech Republic, Colonel José Pedro Nozar Tabárez, visited the company's facilities and toured the L-39NG manufacturing line currently in production.

The L-39NG is the latest version of the primary trainer designed, developed, and manufactured by AERO Vodochody. Incorporating new technologies and avionics into its design, the L-39NG fulfills the role of primary and advanced pilot training. It can also perform light attacks, close air support as well as reconnaissance missions.

According to Zona Militar, the Uruguayan military chiefs were evaluating “new proposals and candidates in the long process that the institution is carrying out to acquire a new training and light attack aircraft.”

The website had already reported on a submission from the Russian Federation to replace the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly model still in service and the IA-58 Pucarás already decommissioned. The Russian consisted of the Yakovlev Yak-130 advanced trainer, with a renewed avionics and armament proposal with respect to the original one.

The modernized version of the Yak-130 allows its combat use in normal and adverse weather conditions, both day and night, and in mountainous areas, thanks to the new radar. At the same time, new features allow it to perform tasks of automatic search, detection, and tracking of air and sea targets; fast search and automatic engagement of visible targets at close air combat distances and conditions; as well as the attack on naval surface targets using guided and unguided weapons.

The Yak-130's radar in air-to-air mode allows the detection and automatic tracking of air and sea targets; associated with the external machine gun pod SNPU-130 with a capacity for 120 shots.

In air-to-surface mode, it allows the detection of stationary targets on the surface, the size of a destroyer, speedboat, or railway bridge, as well as the detection of moving targets in the category of armored and light vehicles.

(Source: Zona-Militar)