Since 2018, French Air and Space Force (FASF) has operated PC-21 advanced pilot trainers, an aircraft designed and developed by Pilatus to not just increase the quality of fighter pilot training but to also reduce the time and cost of it. In 2018 and 2019, the FASF received 17 of them and in July 2021, an order for nine more, the latest variant, was placed. On December 5, 2022, the FASF received its first two PC-21 training aircraft during a ceremony. The two aircraft, with 338 and 339 construction numbers and 018 and 019 serials, landed in Air Base (BA) 709 Cognac, escorted by a first generation PC-21, an Alpha Jet E and a Rafale C. Five months earlier, FASF had stopped using Alpha Jet Es after the Operational Transformation Squadron (ETO) 2/8 Nice was concluded at Cazaux. Now, thanks to the New Generation of PC-21s, the FASF will train its future fighter pilots with lower costs and higher efficiency.
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