ok seems that i need to start the ball rolling
I cannot really remember how far the history of 123 but when the
350 were delivered, it was operated by 123 not 124(afm said), back
in 92 period there was a competition and 550, md defender with
notar and bell kiowa was in competition to replace 350, to side
track during a testing of md a rsaf pilot actually was struck in
the head by the main rotor blades as the a/c sits very low on
ground, back again, the 550 was selected and 6 pilots were send to
france for 1st batch. koh jun teh(kohj, rsaf 1st heli test pilot,
featured in a bbc documentary in 86 when they were doing a film on
empire test pilot school where he was studying, his test heli was
the chinnok, now heli sim center co), derrick koh his brother
(later 123 co), augustine teo (current apache commander, 123 2nd
co, sharp shooter on fennec), ng chee pin (now sia pilot, left rsaf
as 124 instructor), surresh(i think) and an india guy if i not
wrong, could be chinese. when they come back with fennecs, the a2
and c2 operated as a single squadron, that means 123 was both
training and attack. if i not wrong, there was 2 co, kohj and
another koh, cannot rem his name. according to peter teo(ex sbab
co, and ndp parade commander) some one in hq came up with a
brilliant idea to form 124 and transfer the training part to 124,
the 'enemy' will be tricked into thinking that 124 is the attack
fennec sqadron and leave 123 alone. at that time the true
capability of c2 was top secret. its also that time when mg han eng
juan, chief army, took flying lessons at 124. he flew about 12
lessons i think and was given rsaf wings, he then went over to 123
and operated the tow on the c2. he was instrument in bring the
fennec to ex wallaby. i don't agree that only in 1996 did we test
the tow, we tested earlier than that. i saw a tow that was fired in
an ex and recovered much earlier than 1996. to my knowledge, tow
were never publicly carried even in sbab, they are carried only
overseas.
about the current state of fennecs, afm got it wrong, a few of them
are preserved at st eng and could be sold to rnzaf. current fennec
got no attack ability, questionable also. i would not reveal the
current fleet but afm got it all wrong.