L-15 Falcon for Morocco?
January 4, 2025
Local news outlet Le Desk suggested that the Royal Moroccan Air Force had “indicated its preference for the L-15 Falcon,” supposedly due to the “aircraft’s stellar performance.”
The aircraft is available in three distinct forms – the L-15A being a subsonic advanced jet trainer is powered by the Ivchenko-Progress AI-222-25 engine. The L-15B is a supersonic light attack variant powered by the afterburning AI-222K-25F, while the L-15 advanced fighter trainer is a supersonic trainer variant that is also powered by the AI-222K-25F.
It is not readily apparent which variant Morocco is interested in.
Morocco has tended to turn to the West for its defence equipment, though it has acquired the Chinese Norinco Sky Dragon 50 (FD-2000B) and HQ-9 long-range air defence missile systems, and Wing Loong 2 UAVs, as well as some land forces equipment. Such acquisitions have tended to be made when Western equivalents have not been available.
Interest in the L-15 may in part reflect the lack of a French advanced trainer offering, and the likely long queue and very high price tag for the US Boeing T-7A. The credibility of the L-15 (thus far exported only to the Zambian Air Force) has received a significant boost in the shape of a projected order for up to 48 aircraft from the United Arab Emirates Air Force – a ‘reference customer’ air force in the MENA region.
Whether Morocco, with a Western supplied frontline combat air element, would want a Chinese advanced trainer is open to doubt. That frontline force includes 23 F-16C/D Block 52s (being upgraded to F-16V standards), 25 Block 72 F-16C/Ds on order, 27 Dassault Mirage F1s (upgraded to MF2000 standards, with a new cockpit and Thales RC400 (RDY-3) radar) and about 22 Northrop F-5E/Fs.
