The United Arab Emirates announced that it is planning on buying the Hongdu L-15 Falcon advanced jet trainer. UAE defense ministry officials confirmed that a letter of intent has been lodged with the China National Aero-Technological Import & Export Corporation (CATIC) covering the acquisition of 12 L-15s, with a further intention to buy 36 more in the future. The announcement was made on February 23 during the UMEX/SIMTEX combined unmanned systems and simulation/training exhibition held in Abu Dhabi.
The decision represents a further diversification by the UAE in sources of its defense material, which have hitherto been almost exclusively Western in nature. The choice of China is poignant: in December the UAE withdrew its Letter of Acceptance concerning the combined acquisition of Lockheed Martin F-35A fighters and General Atomics MQ-9B SkyGuardian UAVs, which was being held up in Washington due to concerns over the growing ties between the Emirates and Beijing, notably the installation of a 5G network by Huawei. The cancellation of that contract was a condition of the F-35/MQ-9B sale.
It is not the first time that the UAE has turned to China, but special circumstances prevailed: in 2017 Wing Loong UAVs were bought from CATIC at a time when the U.S. would not export armed UAVs to the UAE, and when the UAE considered such an asset as vital for its ongoing operations in Yemen.
If the L-15 acquisition reaches fruition, it will signal the end of a long-running saga to provide a new advanced trainer for the UAE Air Force and Air Defense. In 2009 the UAE announced that it had selected the Aermacchi (now Leonardo) M-346 to answer a requirement for 24 standard advanced trainers and a similar number of armed light attack/lead-in fighter trainers. By the following year the requirement had slimmed down to 20 of each variant, but the deal foundered.
In the ensuing period, the UAE was linked with a number of trainer types, notably the KAI T-50, but continued to operate its BAE Systems Hawks until they were recently withdrawn. In the meantime, the Pilatus PC-21 turboprop meets advanced training requirements. If delivered, the L-15s will provide both jet training and lead-in fighter trainer capabilities.
The L-15 was developed by Hongdu (formerly Nanchang) with assistance from the Yakovlev design bureau, and the type bears a close resemblance to the Yak-130 that also spawned the M-346. The aircraft can carry a range of weapons and drop tanks on four underwing pylons, a PC-2AI gun pod on the centerline, and PL-5E or similar air-to-air missiles on wingtip launch rails. Power in the initial versions comes from a pair of Ukrainian Ivchenko-Progress AI-222K-25 or afterburning AI-222K-5F turbofans, but a Chinese engine developed by Guizhou has also been tested. The aircraft boasts features such as an embedded training system, a three-screen cockpit, and a multi-mode radar. In 2017 Hongdu unveiled a dedicated attack version known as the L-15B.
Production so far has been on a small scale for domestic production, the type being designated JL-10 in China. The type serves in small numbers with both the People’s Liberation Army Air Force and Navy. CATIC has marketed the type for some years and, fittingly, showed the aircraft at the 2021 Dubai Airshow. To date, the only confirmed export customer is Zambia, which ordered six in 2012. Delivered in the L-15 ATF (attack/fighter/trainer) configuration and designated L-15Z, the first aircraft arrived in the African country in 2016.