Air Force buys seven used aircraft for surveillance

[Dolores]

The Dominican Republic Air Force has acquired seven ENAER T-35C Tamiz aircraft, the Spanish version of the Chilean Pillán. The aircraft had been retired from service in 2023 after more than three decades of use, as reported by Spanish media, Infodefensa on its website. The news was carried by Noticias SIN.

The T-35C Tamiz represents the latest iteration of the Pillán, an aircraft originally designed and manufactured by the Chilean company ENAER starting in the 1980s.

Out of the 41 aircraft of this model currently in service, those in Spain were produced by CASA, now part of Airbus, under an agreement between the two companies.

The T-35 continues to operate in the air forces of Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and the Ecuadorian Navy.

The Ministry of Defense and the Air Force in the Dominican Republic have yet to announce the...

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[chico bill]

Painted to look like an A-10 Warthog but it isn't.
Had they bought Warthogs and loaded the .30 cal guns with the 1200 rounds they carry that that would scare off drug smugglers

 

[PJT]

More economical for the DR to buy used? Of course, the buying price is not mentioned. Is this purchase going to creaste chaos because of a lack of price transparency? Remember the Brazilian deal for the Super Tucanos... the bribes. Let's hope the ENAER T-35C's do not come with any baggage.

Regards,

PJT

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

Painted to look like an A-10 Warthog but it isn't.
Had they bought Warthogs and loaded the .30 cal guns with the 1200 rounds they carry that that would scare off drug smugglers

The Dominicans don't have qualified pilots for the A-10, which is currently being phased out and they certainly won't have qualified pilots for its replacement (F-35 lightning II) They can't even keep a website up and running. They couldn't implement tasers because they were tasing themselves during training

This decades old crop duster is unfortunately their event horizon

 

[playacaribe2]

More economical for the DR to buy used? Of course, the buying price is not mentioned. Is this purchase going to creaste chaos because of a lack of price transparency? Remember the Brazilian deal for the Super Tucanos... the bribes. Let's hope the ENAER T-35C's do not come with any baggage.

Regards,

PJT

30+ year old "trainer" aircraft......smh. These are the equivalent planes I learned to fly on.........many many years ago.

What's next buying used computers running MS-DOS?

And what are they training to fly.....the DR really has no air force to speak of........mostly helicopters, a couple of transports and a few super tucanos.

Either this is some form of political kickback or the government is preparing to buy some more sophisticated aircraft and needs an inexpensive way to get pilot training.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2

 

[Manuel01]

For the price of one of this used planes they could probably get 20 professional surveilance drones incl. the ground station.
But this prices would be easy to check on the market and no bribes would be possible. And btw. even when Single engine propeller Airplanes are used for survailance, nobody uses this type of airplane. The Pilot doesn't see shit about whats going on below him. Until recently the US were still using some cessnas for border protection but they have wings above the Fuselage and the pilot actually sees something.

 

[AlterEgo]

Mr AE is decidedly unhappy about this since he read about it a few days ago. He’s still grumbling. Apparently getting parts for the planes is an issue too.

 

[bachata]

Couple more years and they will be classic.

JJ

 

[Notengo]

Mr AE is decidedly unhappy about this since he read about it a few days ago. He’s still grumbling. Apparently getting parts for the planes is an issue too.

I would expect they would come with containers full of spare parts. If not this is a very bad deal.

 

[Peterj]

The Dominicans don't have qualified pilots for the A-10, which is currently being phased out and they certainly won't have qualified pilots for its replacement (F-35 lightning II) They can't even keep a website up and running. They couldn't implement tasers because they were tasing themselves during training

This decades old crop duster is unfortunately their event horizon

Dominicans can't even drive a car normally, let alone fly a plane!

 

[chico bill]

30+ year old "trainer" aircraft......smh. These are the equivalent planes I learned to fly on.........many many years ago.

What's next buying used computers running MS-DOS?

And what are they training to fly.....the DR really has no air force to speak of........mostly helicopters, a couple of transports and a few super tucanos.

Either this is some form of political kickback or the government is preparing to buy some more sophisticated aircraft and needs an inexpensive way to get pilot training.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2

The smugglers have much faster planes

 

[chico bill]

Mr AE is decidedly unhappy about this since he read about it a few days ago. He’s still grumbling. Apparently getting parts for the planes is an issue too.

Dominicans are good at using bailing wire. Maybe the Chinese sell parts on eBay that will fit

 

[USA DOC]

More economical for the DR to buy used? Of course, the buying price is not mentioned. Is this purchase going to creaste chaos because of a lack of price transparency? Remember the Brazilian deal for the Super Tucanos... the bribes. Let's hope the ENAER T-35C's do not come with any baggage.

Regards,

PJT

Bribes never happen here.............

 

[tee]

For the price of one of this used planes they could probably get 20 professional surveilance drones incl. the ground station.
But this prices would be easy to check on the market and no bribes would be possible. And btw. even when Single engine propeller Airplanes are used for survailance, nobody uses this type of airplane. The Pilot doesn't see shit about whats going on below him. Until recently the US were still using some cessnas for border protection but they have wings above the Fuselage and the pilot actually sees something.

Couldn't agree more. Drones are definitely the way to go about things nowadays especially for border patrol. And the price to run them is a fraction or what it costs to run one of these planes.

 

[slowmo]

Either this is some form of political kickback or the government is preparing to buy some more sophisticated aircraft and needs an inexpensive way to get pilot training.

Can't it be both?

 

[NALs]

Painted to look like an A-10 Warthog but it isn't.
Had they bought Warthogs and loaded the .30 cal guns with the 1200 rounds they carry that that would scare off drug smugglers

Drug smuggling via the air actually came to a stand still when the Tucanos started to be used by the Dominican Air Force. Until then airplanes full of drugs would fly inyo the DR from Colombia/Venezuela and would land even on highways.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

Drug smuggling via the air actually came to a stand still when the Tucanos started to be used by the Dominican Air Force. Until then airplanes full of drugs would fly inyo the DR from Colombia/Venezuela and would land even on highways.

Sources please. Numbers?

You sure generate a substantial amount of content under the guise of "Economist by Profession". In fact lately I've noticed these very lengthly, dull posts on various topics with little-to-no citations?

 

[Manuel01]

Drug smuggling via the air actually came to a stand still when the Tucanos started to be used by the Dominican Air Force. Until then airplanes full of drugs would fly inyo the DR from Colombia/Venezuela and would land even on highways.

Totally true ! Tucanos are exrtemely fast and versatile aircrafts an are perfect for this Job. But for Border Patrol they are as useless than the Enaer.

 

[chico bill]

Drug smuggling via the air actually came to a stand still when the Tucanos started to be used by the Dominican Air Force. Until then airplanes full of drugs would fly inyo the DR from Colombia/Venezuela and would land even on highways.

Might that have more to do with the agreement with DEA (It's National Drug Threat Assessment arm) to share information on suspected drug flights in the Caribbean and South America

 

[JD Jones]

Might that have more to do with the agreement with DEA (It's National Drug Threat Assessment arm) to share information on suspected drug flights in the Caribbean and South America

How do you know they will be using them to look down? Maybe they're being used to scan and intercept other aircraft enter Dominican airspace.