The first of six Royal Jordanian Air Force IOMAX Border Patrol Aircraft (BPA), a highly-modified Air Tractor AT-802, passed through Luqa on its way back to Jordan on December 13, 2017. The aircraft was returning to Jordan following upgrade from BPA Block 1 to Block 2 standard carried out by IOMAX at its facility at Lake Norman Airpark, North Carolina.
Block 1 aircraft are only configured for the ISR mission whereas the Block 2 standard gives the turboprop-powered aircraft the ability to carry INS/GPS precisionguided munitions, including 550lb (250kg) bombs and Rokestan’s Cirit laser-guided rockets.
Jordan received six IOMAX Block 1 BPA aircraft from the United Arab Emirates in 2013. It also operates four more AT-802s (originally supplied by L-3 and destined for Yemen) that were diverted to Jordan by the United States when Yemen descended into civil war in 2015. So far, Jordan has only announced plans to upgrade the six former United Arab Emirates machines, but AIR International understands that the four AT-802 aircraft supplied by L-3 and the US government will also be upgraded but to IOMAX BPA Block 2.5 standard.
