Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has been awarded the largest weapons development project in Korea’s history, KF-X, worth 18 trillion won, to develop and build Korean-type fighter planes. It’s a significant project that strengthens the nation’s defense capability and bodes well for the nation’s aerodynamics industry in the years to come.
The government called for a meeting of the Defense Industry Promotion Committee on March 30 and decided to select KAI to take care of the project. Spokesman Kang Shi-cheol of the committee said they voted for KAI to take charge of the huge project based on the bidding papers that were submitted to the committee, which included those from Korean Air
The committee went over major contents of the the plans for the development of the fighter planes, development capacities and costs before opting to give the project to KAI.
KAI had advantages over its rival bidder, as it already has experience in developing the FA-50 fighter plane, the Surion helicopter and others ? giving it an advantage over its rival, Korean Air. Some questioned Lockheed Aircraft’s transfer of the technology to develop the KF-X fighter plane, as the U.S. government is supervising it, but the committee decided that it would not have problems in the transfer of the technologies as a partner of KAI.
KAI President Ha Seong-yong said the development of the FA-50 and the Surion helicopter gives KAI a lot of experience in the development of new aircraft, and there is no doubt that the company will be able to complete the project successfully and on time.
The committee made the final decision to award the project to KAI in the middle of June, following its final negotiations with KAI on such key matters as the cost and technology involved with the project.
The project aims at the development of better fighter planes than the KF-16, the current major jet fighter for the Korean Air Force, and began mass production of the newly developed fighter planes in 2025 with a process that would make possible the installation of stealth functions on the planes. The first stage of production involves 120 new fighter planes to replace the F-4 and F-6 fighters now operated by the Korean Air Force. The first-stage production will also turn out 50 new fighter planes to be exported to Indonesia and 134 to replace the KF-16 under a long-term strategy to bring the initial total to 304 fighter planes.
KAI has already sighed an MOU with Lockheed Martin on the technology transfer, investment and other key matters for the KF-X Project.
The Indonesian government is expected to pick up the tab for the KF-X Project, amounting to around 20 percent as agreed to in the Korea-Indonesia Joint Air plane Development Basic Agreement, with the project expected to help the growth of the defense and aerospace industries in addition to strengthening national defense.
KAI estimates the economic impact to total around 90 trillion won when the project is successfully completed, employing a total of 300,000 people over the next 20 years. KAI projects the sale of the new fighter plane would total around 1,000 planes by the time the first batch of the new planes has been produced and delivered around the world as targeted in November 2025.
KAI other experience in the development of new aircraft includes the K-1, a high-class trainer plane and the T-50 light attack aircraft, in addition to joint airplane development projects with a number of aircraft makers in Europe and the U.S. It also has around 1,300 research staff both for software and hardware in addition to around 1,000 new research staff hired last year just for the KF-X Project.
_KAI2.jpg)
