The Aermacchi MB-339AM, or
locally knows as 'Macchi', is RMAF intermediate trainer A total of twelve
aircrafts were ordered and delivered in 1983 with a replacement N0 .13 aircraft
joint the fleet later,
Macchi
served with FTC 3 in Kuantan before joining BAe Hawk 108/208 to form the
composite No. 15 advance training squadron in Butterworth. It’s here that the
TUDM pilots get their first test on the Fast jet training.
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Beside providing
trainee pilot the basic weapon training, TUDM Macchi also have a secondary
ground-attack role, it 6 hard points and a maximum weapons load of 1814kg, it
can carry a variety of bombs, rockets and gun pods to fulfill these roles,
however the normal configuration for flight training is with 2 fuel tanks
carried on station 2 and 5.
MB-339
is set to soldier on for the years to come, and in fact RMAF had announced to
acquire the retired Kiwi MB-339Cs to partner with the exiting MB339AM and Hawk
Mk108 to fulfill the LIFT role.
The Macchi wear a unique dark
yellow/ dark green camo pattern, the paint scheme chosen in this model depict
the early paint scheme with FTC 3 that have the orange training band on the nose
and outer tip tank surface., later the orange band were removed from the
aircraft to suite it ground-attack look.
This
model was build OOB, the raised line was rescribed. Colors used are Tamiya
dark yellow, Gunze dark green, Orange and off white on the belly.
Thomas
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