EADS (DASA) AT-2000 MAKO
Many technologies, whether developed or just designed for FTT and TDEFS, have
found their way into the EADS MAKO advanced training / light combat aircraft
project. However, its origins date back to 1989, when a study of a future advanced
training aircraft, presented at that time under the name AT-2000, was carried out in
cooperation with Aermacchi and DASA. However, Aermacchi decided not to continue
the development and concluded a cooperation agreement with Jakovlev on the Jak-130
machine. Further work was therefore carried out exclusively under the auspices of
DASA.
The project was first presented to the public in October 1996, with the construction of a
prototype to begin a year later, and the first flight was scheduled for sometime around
2000. First, however, development funding had to be secured. At the beginning of
1998, the AT-2000 project moved significantly further, thanks to extensive wind tunnel
tests, engineering refinement of the concept and radar reflection tests, which
provided very promising results of 1 m2 over a distance of 45 km. The aircraft was
built in accordance with technologies for low detectability by enemy air defense,
which came from the Lampyridae, FTT and TDEFS programs. In October, DASA
teamed up with South Korean company Hyundai to offer the AT-2000 to South Korea's
tender for a new lightweight supersonic training and combat aircraft. The problem
was,that the Samsung KTX-2 (T-50 Golden Eagle) was permanently preferred in this
selection, on which the American corporation Lockheed Martin also cooperated.
Another option was South Africa with very similar requirements. As early as the
beginning of 1998, Denel built a life-size model of the AT-2000 machine, which was
first presented at the Airshow Africa exhibition. In November, however, a decision was
published to introduce the JAS-39 Gripen type into operational service, which reduced
the chances of buying AT-2000 machines to a minimum. In addition, the project was
further complicated by the planned (and later canceled) merger of DASA and BAe.
BAe was not at all enthusiastic about the idea of developing an aircraft that would
compete with its Hawk type and the Swedish Gripen, in which BAe has a stake. The
aircraft was renamed MAKO in mid-1998.
Structurally, it is a single-engine one or two-seater mid-plane with a length of 13.75
meters, a height of 4.5 meters and a span of 8.25 meters. The area of the wing is exactly
half of the Eurofighter Typhoon and is 25 m2. In the combat version, the maximum
takeoff weight climbed to 13,000 kg, of which 6200 kg empty aircraft, 3300 kg fuel and
4500 kg cargo. The training variant is much easier to recognize with a maximum take-
off weight of 8300 kg. The combat version is to have a built-in 27 mm cannon and on
seven hangers (two at the end of the wing, four under the wing and one sub-fuselage)
can carry a wide range of anti-aircraft and anti-ground weapons. Composite materials
are widely represented in the construction of aircraft.
At the end of 1999, however, a new serious buyer and share in the development in the
form of Saudi Arabia appeared. She has had extensive experience with European
cooperation in the past, not only in the case of the Panavia Tornado. Development work
continued slowly, largely from internal DASA and EADS resources, respectively.
Another extensive series of tests in the wind tunnel fully confirmed the aerodynamic
concept of the machine and the possibility of achieving the planned performance. In
June 2001, a fully functional model of the progressively designed cockpit of the MAKO
machine was presented at the Paris Air Show. The rear seat was temporarily solved in
the form of a virtual reality, so that various possibilities of arranging the
instrumentation could be easily tried out. In the richly represented modern avionics, for
example, there was also a helmet sight. At that time, it was assumedthat the decision to
build a prototype will be made at the Dubai Air Show in November 2001, with the
prototype taking off at the end of 2005 and serial machines being available sometime in
the late decade. It didn't happen. Neither Germany nor Saudi Arabia has been able to
guarantee the necessary two billion euros to successfully complete the development.
At that time, engineers excluded from the list of usable engines types M88-3 and
EJ200, so the only alternative remained the American type General Electric F414M
with a thrust of 90 kN in the combat variant and with a thrust reduced to 75 kN in the
training variant. With it, the aircraft was to reach speeds of Mach 1.5 and Mach 1.3,
respectively, with an access of 15,250 meters and a range of 3,700 km. Appropriate
shaping of the fuselage was to achieve a radar reflective area of 1m2 from the front
hemisphere to a distance of 45 km, which could bring a certain tactical advantage in
combat.
In 2003, the machine was renamed MAKO HEAT. The acronym HEAT (High Energy
Advanced Trainer) is intended to emphasize its high performance in supersonic mode.
The main sales option for the training variant was to be the rather controversial and
unclear Eurotrainer program, which, if successful, would make the MAKO aircraft the
main advanced training type for the twelve participating NATO countries. The
competition was the Aermacchi M-346 type from Italy, the Swedish-French subsonic
type from the workshops of SAAB and Dassault, and an alternative to the
original ATX training aircraft from CASA was also considered., at that time already
EADS CASA. Although the Korean KAI T-50 Golden Eagle met the requirements, its
chances of success in the European tender were practically zero. Unfortunately, the
internal disunity of the participating countries has meant that, almost a decade after the
creation of the Eurotrainer initiative, no conclusion or purchase of even one copy of the
150 aircraft under consideration has been reached. For the MAKO type, no customer
has been obtained so far and information about its existence has already disappeared
from the official product sheet on the EADS Cassidian website. Its chances for
implementation are therefore currently slim. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has opted for the
M-346, but still weighs with the official order. DASA and its successor EADS have
invested approximately EUR 80 million in development work on the MAKO aircraft.
