CLARK AIR BASE?The Air Force is buying 18 new Italian-made Marchetti training planes for P621 million, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said yesterday.

He said the Marchetti aircraft was the second plane that a trainee pilot should learn to fly after the T-41D Cessna to graduate.

The Air Force now has eight Marchettis.

?Cessna planes are used as-touch-and go aircraft for takeoff and landing maneuvers,? Teodoro said.

?The Marchetti is used for advance maneuvers consisting of delicate exercises.?

Teodoro and Air Force Chief Oscar Rabena made history yesterday by leading a diamond formation of 15 T-41D Cessna planes. They first hopped to Basa Airbase in Florida Blanca town before proceeding to San Fernando Air Base in Lipa City, where the American-made planes will be housed.

The last time a diamond formation of fighting jets was held was sometime in the early 1970s, but it was never repeated after each jet was decommissioned but not replaced.

The flight became possible after the South Korean government donated 15 T-1D training planes. The Air Force now has eight used Cessna planes that cost $50,000 each.

But an official said it was still not certain when the 18 Marchetti planes would be delivered because the Air Force and the Italian supplier could not agree on the price.

?The P621-million budget was made several years ago when the peso was worth 42 to the dollar,? Assistant Defense Secretary Lamberto Sillona said.

?The Italians said the agreed amount was in dollars and our budget is in pesos. But we are quite sure this procurement will materialize anytime this year or early next year.?

Meanwhile, the Army has proposed adding six more elite Special Forces battalions to ensure the defeat of communist insurgents by 2010.

?I plan to propose organizing more Special Forces battalions to handle [militias] because that?s their expertise,? Army Chief Victor Ibrado said.

Army spokesman Romeo Brawner Jr. said the proposal was nothing new because the militias had been under the Special Forces before they were transferred to another battalion in 2004.

?When they were the ones handling the [militias] in the past, we found that the [militias] were more effective and we had no problems with them,? Brawner said. Jaime Pilapil