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EX-GERMAN AIR FORCE ALPHA JETS BOUND FOR THAILAND

With an average of only 2000 flying hours each, the German Air Force's Alpha Jets were still pretty new when they were taken out of service between 1992 and June 1997. But despite this, it took a lot of fruitless efforts for those responsible in the Defence Ministry to offload the aircraft, which were no longer needed for close air support and training. It was only in August 1999 that they succeeded in selling 25 aircraft to Thailand and a further 12 to the British Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA).

The proceeds of the sale have not exactly been a bonanza for the German Government's coffers. For example, the Thais are said to have paid only a token DM50,000 ($21,600) per aircraft. But no doubt the primary concern was simply to get rid of the aircraft at last in the face of severe criticism from the Federal Accounting Office. "By the end of 1998 the cost of decommissioning the aircraft and maintaining them unused had passed the DM10 million [$4.3 million] mark. Every additional delay in disposing of them was costing the Federal budget around DM6000 [$2,600] a day," according to the 1999 annual report. It will be clear from this that the sales proceeds have not nearly covered the cost of keeping the aircraft in hangars.

Yet the sale was worth DM100 million ($43 million) to Fairchild Dornier, which won a contract to restore the Alpha Jets in store at Fürstenfeldbruck air base to flightworthiness and provide technical support to the end users in the United Kingdom and Thailand.

The first customer to take delivery was DERA, which plans to use seven aircraft for escort, training and other auxiliary tasks. Five of the airframes purchased will be used for spare parts. Deliveries to Boscombe Down began in the spring.

The first Alpha Jet bound for the Royal Thai Air Force rolled out of the hangar in Fürstenfeldbruck on 13 July in a ceremony also attended by Air Chief Marshal Sanan Tourtip. Ferrying of five aircraft to the Udong Thane air base in north-east Thailand then commenced on 19 September. Further batches of five aircraft apiece will be delivered in March, May and August 2001. Five of the aircraft purchased will be used for spare parts.

As well as making the Alpha Jets airworthy and installing some new avionics equipment in them, Fairchild Dornier is also supplying test instruments, tools and a package of spare parts. 40 technicians will be trained and four pilots given conversion training. After the Thailand assignment is complete, the company will still have another 41 ex-Luftwaffe Alpha Jets to sell. It seems that interest has been expressed both by new customers and existing users, although no one in Oberpfaffenhofen was prepared to name any names.

From page 64 of FLUG REVUE 11/2000