Planespotter Michael J Carter captured the Philippine Air Force’s (PAF) newly acquired asset — a Gulfstream G280 with tail number 1251; pictured above — two (02) days ago in Long Beach Daugherty Field (LGB / KLGB), United States of America.
Quoting the photographer’s post in planespotters.net, “Brand new G280 taxies to Rwy 30 as it prepares to depart for Lihue, Hawaii as ‘PAF1251’ during her delivery flight to the Philippines.”
It may be recalled that in October 2019, the Department of National Defense confirmed the procurement of two (02) Command-and-Control quoting Department of National Defense (DND) spokesperson Arsenio Andolong in a news report, “As far as I know, the status of the procurement of the C-295 command-and-control aircraft and G-280 are already in the contract implementation phase. In fact, the C-295 is set to be delivered within the year and the G-280 will be delivered sometime next year, about August.”
The procurement of two (02) Command-and-Control aircraft is part of the Philippine military’s modernization program. The term “Command-and-Control” is somewhat being used by the PAF to define an aircraft’s role to transport VVIP’s (high ranking government officials and/or guests of the country). At present, the PAF is utilizing a Fokker F28 Fellowship (with tail number 1250; acquired in 1980) and a recently delivered CASA C-295 from Airbus Defence and Space (Spain).
According to flight-tracking website FlightAware, the aircraft has been in Guam since Friday, 18 September 2020, and is expected to land in Clark International Airport (CRK) tomorrow, Sunday, 20 September 2020 at around 1000H.
Israel Aerospace Industries is the one building the Gulfstream G280 twin-engine business jet for Gulfstream Aerospace (United States). The aircraft manufacturers started the delivery of this aircraft model in 2012. The Gulfstream G280 has a maximum speed of Mach 0.84 and a cruising speed of Mach 0.80 (459 knots or 850 kilometers per hour). It has a flight range of 3,600 nautical miles (6,667 kilometers) and a service ceiling of 45,000 feet. This particular aircraft type is capable of landing on small runways and can transport up to 10 pax, excluding two (02) cockpit crew.