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Old 7th Jul 2021, 13:46
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DuckDodgers
 
Join Date: May 2003
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Originally Posted by melmothtw
Have they? They only announced the certification in May - how much news are you expecting?
The certification and 3 flights with nothing since. Now the important question and observation is this, did that flight include all the modifications and upgrades, I suspect not as there are many pointers to this in all the marketing material pushed thus far. As such it gained its AW certification against the baseline configuration it was received in from Golden Number Solutions (GNS) in Israel. So assume the modifications and upgrades are done as per their marketing (new radome (likely from GD) for AESA (likely from Elta) will be the most obvious) then the aircraft will have to be re-certified. Same if they have undertaken and achieved USAF TAA Military Flight Release. At this time, they have no task orders from the government to generate revenue with these aircraft. I suspect they will be eager to bid on the upcoming F-35C Chase Contract and look to partner with another provider to compete for Nellis as 4 becoming 12 aircraft don't cut it.
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