Uruguay evaluates Aero Vodochody’s advanced trainer L-39NG, the Czech manufacturer revealed this week. A delegation from the South American country’s air force was recently at the company’s facilities visiting the assembly line of the advanced training and light attack jet.
For a long time, Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya has been aiming to replace its old Cessna A-37 Dragonfly jets as well as fill the place left by the IA 58 Pucará attack planes, deactivated in 2017.
Uruguay is also evaluating the Russian Yakovlev Yak-130, but no statement on a possible order has been made by the country’s government so far.
The L-39NG is an improved version of the L-39 Albatros jet, which first flew in 1968 and which was operated by the former Soviet Union and several other aligned countries.
The L-39NG prototype had its Ivchenko AI-25TL engine replaced by the Williams International FJ44-4M, in addition to receiving a new avionics suite and a glass cockpit. The single-engine jet can carry up to 1,650 kg on its five hard points on the wings.
According to Aero, the L-39 was ordered by the Czech state-owned company LOM Praha sp, which will use them to train the country’s Air Force pilots, as well as the Republic of Senegal.
