American Impression of Filipino Pilots in Cope Thunder 23.2

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

During the media interviews by international and local reporters with the United States Air Force (USAF) A-10 Warthog pilot Captain Liam Baldwin and C-130-J Capt. Cole Wise and Philippine Air Force (PAF) FA-50 fighter pilots Major Ronholp S. Ausa, Major Virgilio K. Villanueva and Capt. Philip Vincent Roy R. Freire (Alternate)  - moderated by PAF Major Joseph Calma (PMA Class 2011 and an Airbus C295 transport plane pilot) – at the Haribon Hangar in Clark Air Base in Pampanga, I posed my question to the Americans.

CHINA FEARS THIS JET. Filipino and American pilots in a huddle near one of the most superior all-weather tactical fighter combat jets of the Americans. The F-22 is a single-seat, twin-engine supersonic stealth aircraft. Six of them joined the Cope Thunder 23.2 military exercise with the Philippines Air Force in Clark Air Base and Brig. Gen. Benito Ebuen Air Base in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. The Raptor photo is an internet grabbed.

“Question to the American pilots! How did you find the expertise of our Filipino pilots compared to the American pilots flying the F-16, F-18, F-15 and others?”

Baldwin retorted: “We have the same mission. We trained for air support, strike formation, reconnaissance, air operation, maritime warfare. It’s all the same mission (inaudible) the same mission implementation like the same sights and sounds. Being here exercising in the Philippines with our partners have been super tight as what we actually know. Our combined objectives in the region to be free and the Indo-Pacific Region…"

GMA-7 TV Male Reporter: How did you find our pilots?!

Captain Baldwin: They’re awesome!

Reporters milling the interviewees chuckled.

This Writer: Awesome and handsome.

Capt. Baldwin: I’m sorry?

This Writer: Awesome and handsome!

Reporters milling the interviewees guffawed.

American and Filipino combat pilots return to camp at Clark Air Base in Pampanga after their aerial military exercise from Mactan Airbase under the second Cope Thunder 2023. Background is the lethal A-10 Thunderbolt -II low fliying jet. Known too as Tank Killer and Warthog. PHOTO: Mortz C. Ortigoza

I asked the Filipino pilots if the Korean Thales data link jibed with the data link of the U.S aircraft especially during a conflict with the enemy.

“To the FA-50 jet fighter pilots. FA-50 uses the South Korean data link. Does it jibe with the U.S aircraft’s data link?”

PAF Pilot Major Ronholp S. Ausa: "FA-50 currently uses the data link-16. It is a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) standard data link and it is a common data link for U.S forces".

The question was the result of my blog’s Criminal Liabilitieson the P15.5B Warships I wrote several years ago when the Philippines bought one of the two brand new South Korean made 107 meters long diesel powered 25 knots’ Incheon-class frigates and when Hyundai Heavy Industry (HHI) reneged on the contract to install a Netherland’s Thales- Tactico’s combat management system (CMS). HHI later told the Philippine Navy that it preferred to install the South Korean made Hanwha Systems Naval Shield’s Combat Management System.

“The Korean “Link 16” is unproven and could be vulnerable to Chinese electronic attack,” one of the Naval experts on an online defense forum opined as excerpt of that news article that saw print too in our newspaper.

I’ll give you its illustration:

In case war between Mainland China and allied countries like the Philippines, Japan, and the United States break out, the function of the Netherlands’ Thales-Tacticos CMS is to guide the SSM-700K Haeseong (Sea Star) long-range anti-ship missile fired from one of the frigates to an eluding Chinese warship 200 kilometers away from its location in the disputed West Philippine Sea.

In case the Frigate’s radar envelop could no longer detect the absconding enemy warship, does it mean the U.S $2,347,500.00 (Won 2, 500,000, 000.00 Wikipedia) each cruising missile, likened to U.S made Harpoon, would just plunge to the sea for nothing?

 The answer is in the negative if there is, say, a Japanese F-35B, a stealth supersonic jump jet, based on the helicopter carrier 248 meters long Izumo flying somewhere in the area that will cue and guide, thanks to the CMS, the SSM-700K to destroy the Chinese warship.

Thanks too to both the frigate and the U.S made short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B’s Tactical Data Link (TDL) 16  that connects with each other. War in the West Philippines Sea, in case it happened, would not only gory but efficient as the expensive explosive unleashed by the ship could hit its enemy.

READ MY OTHER BLOG/COLUMN:

U.S Military Rescue Operation: Things Filipinos Could Learn

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.