South Korea abandons consideration of stealth fighter development

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Rufus 9/19/2009 4:15:03 PM

"but there is an exchange rate problem of strong Euro.."

Yeah... because that is clearly the biggest problem with this plan...

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SlowMan 9/19/2009 4:30:32 PM

@ Rufus

> Yeah... because that is clearly the biggest problem with this plan...

The contract will be in US Dollar base, so this puts Euro-based companies in a disadvantage with strong Euro.

Well, at least there is one US company out there desperate for a contract of this scale

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sentinel28a 9/20/2009 6:58:58 PM

It sounds to me that Korea would be better off simply buying the Typhoon and going for an offset rather than spending a ton of money on what will likely be a Typhoon knockoff anyway.

I'm sure it'll be a fine aircraft, but it seems like they're spending a lot of money on something that might be available around 2016 when they could buy the same damn thing right now.

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SlowMan 9/20/2009 7:59:50 PM

@ sentinel28a

> It sounds to me that Korea would be better off simply buying the Typhoon

Stock Typhoon was considered but ruled out because it didn't meet the Airforce's requirement.

> and going for an offset rather than spending a ton of money on what will likely be a Typhoon knockoff anyway.

A Modified Typhoon with internal weapons bay and further all-aspect RCS reduction and uprated engine is basically what the Korean Air Force wants. However, there is the problem of strong Euro, which puts European bidders in disadvantage at the moment since the contract will be denominated in USD.

The most likely candidate is Boeing's Super Hornet based derivative with uprated F414 EDE engine for supercruising and internal missile bays. This bid has the political benefit of being a US-based bid, but faces the hurdle of US government approval on the exact scope of tech transfer.

If both bid fails, then P306 design bid from Saab wins. There is almost no chance for Lockheed Martin's F-16 based bid(Lockheed Martin was previously pushing F-50 but it is now confirmed that F-50 bid is dropped and is replaced by heavily modified F-16 as the base aircraft for KFX bid, sort of a Super Falcon).

> but it seems like they're spending a lot of money on something that might be available around 2016 when they could buy the same damn thing right now.

It will role out in 2018 and be introduced into service in 2021.

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SlowMan 9/20/2009 10:27:33 PM

Well, aviation week has a KFX article < link >

There are certain errors in the article.

- F-35 has no support within Korean DoD for being non-stealthy against Japanese radars and it is expected to lose to F-15K in the competition.

- The F-15 variant being discussed for F-X III import program is the regular K with AESA, not SE.

- The new KFX description is correct, but it didn't include the 50,000 lbs minimum thrust level restriction. The airforce specifically enforced this provision to exclude single engine proposals.

- All prices are in 2009 USD, not in Korean Won. Inflation will be accounted for in pricing contract.

Well, the target empty weight is 10.5 ton, so go look up which aircraft is closest to this.

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SlowMan 9/20/2009 10:45:15 PM

Well, aviation week has a KFX article < link >

There are certain errors in the article.

- F-35 has no support within Korean DoD for being non-stealthy against Japanese radars and it is expected to lose to F-15K in the competition.

- The F-15 variant being discussed for F-X III import program is the regular K with AESA, not SE.

- The new KFX description is correct, but it didn't include the 50,000 lbs minimum thrust level restriction. The airforce specifically enforced this provision to exclude single engine proposals.

- All prices are in 2009 USD, not in Korean Won. Inflation will be accounted for in pricing contract.

Well, the target empty weight is 10.5 ton, so go look up which aircraft is closest to this.

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SlowMan 9/20/2009 10:49:58 PM

Well, aviation week has a KFX article < link >

There are certain errors in the article.

- F-35 has no support within Korean DoD for being non-stealthy against Japanese radars and it is expected to lose to F-15K in the competition.

- The F-15 variant being discussed for F-X III import program is the regular K with AESA, not SE.

- The new KFX description is correct, but it didn't include the 50,000 lbs minimum thrust level restriction. The airforce specifically enforced this provision to exclude single engine proposals.

- All prices are in 2009 USD, not in Korean Won. Inflation will be accounted for in pricing contract.

Well, the target empty weight is 10.5 ton, so go look up which aircraft is closest to this.

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sentinel28a 9/21/2009 12:54:23 AM

Since you're the only person talking war with Japan, Slow, I'm guessing Aviation Week might know a teensy more than you do. Given that they've got about 50 years of experience and a reputation for accuracy.

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SlowMan 9/21/2009 7:21:26 AM

Aviation Week blasts KFX program as an example of fighter industrial nationalism < link >

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Rufus 9/21/2009 12:21:52 PM

It is really funny reading how different a description aviation week gives than our fanboy...

Shockingly, the professional publication with some actual credibility describes a plausible program and outlines some of the issues that will have to be addressed.

Meanwhile the fanboy....

Well lets just say it doesn't look like he is going to let facts impact his thinking.

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