EDITORIAL - More simulators than planes

The Department of National Defense is now inviting bidders to supply it with flight simulators. Flight simulators are devices that allow people to experience an almost full sensory experience of flying, minus the risk to their lives.

Flight simulators are very important in the training of pilots. They can be programmed to simulate any flight environment and have found great use for military and commercial purposes. They are so important that the Philippine Air Force reportedly has five simulators in its inventory.

One would have thought, however, that five flight simulators would be enough for the Philippine Air Force, considering the current state of affairs within military's air arm. Without meaning to disparage the air force, the fact still remains that it has often been derogatorily described as "all air, without any force."

And that is because the air assets of the Philippine military are almost non-existent. We do have a few helicopters and a few trainer jets. But that's about it. Given the limited air assets we have, five flight simulators ought to suffice.

So how come the Department of National Defense is now inviting bidders so it can buy three more? Why, if we buy three more and add them to the current five that we have, that would make it eight flight simulators for an air force that is "all air but no force."

If our government goes ahead with the intended purchase of more flight simulators, which will cost our poor taxpayers some P246 million, we could become the only country in the world with the dubious distinction of having more flight simulators than actual aircraft.

Levity aside, the more serious issue in this projected acquisition is why the need to spend precious money on more flight simulators to train pilots when we do not even have enough aircraft for them to fly? Is it absolutely necessary for us to have a surfeit of these devices?

Given the fact that we only have very few air assets, it should follow that the training of pilots does not have to stick to a very hectic regimen. Our almost "aircraftless" pilots can always take turns training in the existing five flight simulators that we already have.

If the government does not drop this folly of the Department of National Defense, people might be tempted to suspect that the plan to embark on a useless purchase of largely unneeded flight simulators is just another scam in the making.