The FA-50 used to get snubbed for being too expensive because its specs were overkill for a trainer. But after the Philippines used it to accurately bomb rebel bases even with old-school unguided bombs, it made headlines and became a massive selling point when exporting to Poland later. In the arms trade, real-world combat experience and whether the manufacturing country's own military uses it are huge deal-closers... haha.
Since then, in the recent Thailand-Cambodia conflict, Thailand used the KGGB (Korean GPS Guided Bomb) for bombing, and it was so accurate that its popularity shot up.
And just recently, local news reports came out saying that the T-50TH exported from Korea was deployed in the bombings against Cambodia and that it's the real deal, with pilots giving it a ton of praise lol.
Thailand has F-16s, but they're such old versions that the FA-50, being a newer airframe, is actually rated better for air-to-ground missions...
I originally thought the T-50TH was just the pure trainer version (T-50) for Thailand, but it seems they bought a mix of versions that can perform on par with the FA-50. Probably around the TA-50 level?
Man, this is pretty awesome lol.
"Users are geeking out over the FA-50's combat success in Southeast Asia, debating the technical nuances of 'attacker vs. fighter' while celebrating the jet's evolution from an 'overpriced trainer' to a 'combat-proven beast.'"
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