Jordan to receive IOMAX-upgraded Air Tractor

Seen in UAE service before being gifted to Jordan in 2013, the six IOMAX AT-802 Block 2 Border Patrol Aircraft fielded by the Royal Jordanian Air Force are now to be upgraded to the manufacturer's latest Block 4 standard. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

Jordan is to officially receive back into service the first IOMAX Air Tractor AT-802 Border Patrol Aircraft (BPA) that has been upgraded by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the United States.

A ceremony marking the delivery of the first of six Air Tractor-based turboprop airframes that are to be upgraded in the US and Jordan will be held at IOMAX's Mooresville facility in North Carolina on 22 October. The event will be attended by the Chief of the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF), Brigadier General Mohammad Hiyasat, and other senior dignitaries.

“The event here in our hangar will be the commissioning of the first Block 4 BPA for the Jordanians,” IOMAX CEO KC Howard told Janes. “Work on the first two aircraft will be done here [in Mooresville] with Jordanian on-the-job training, with the remaining four being done in-country by the Jordanians under IOMAX supervision,” he added.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) gifted Jordan six IOMAX AT-802 BPAs in the baseline Block 1 standard in 2013. The aircraft were handed over in an armed configuration, although used initially only for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) duties via an underfuselage-mounted BRITE Star II electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) sensor turret.