South Korea to Buy 20 More Advanced Fighters by 2012

South Korea will introduce 20 advanced combat aircraft from 2010 to 2012, in addition to the scheduled delivery of 40 F-15K fighters from Boeing of the United States, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said Wednesday.

The decision was made at a meeting of the agency's supreme committee, chaired by Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo, in Seoul.

Under the second phase of the ``F-X'' next-generation warplane procurement project, the military plans to purchase 20 multi-role fighters from foreign countries via open bidding with an investment of about 2.3 trillion won ($2.4 billion), agency officials said.

``We'll draw up a detailed plan for the procurement program next month and open the bid in March by identifying the Air Force's operational requirements to foreign competitors concerned,'' Maj. Gen. Kim Deuk-hwan, director-general for aircraft acquisition programs of the agency, said in a briefing.

The agency aims to seal the deal by February next year after six months of evaluations and price negotiations between June and December, Kim said.

``Possible candidate fighters for the latest F-X project are Boeing's F-15K, the Rafale of France's Dassault Aviation, the Eurofighter Typhoon built by a consortium of European aerospace manufactures and the SU-35 of the Russian Aviation,'' he said.

Kim, however, said the F-35 Lightening II of the U.S. Lockheed Martin would not be a competitor because the fifth-generation fighter does not meet the basic requirements of the Air Force regarding the number of engines, weapons-carrying capacity and combat radius.
Under the $5.5-billion deal struck in 2002, U.S. aircraft giant Boeing started delivering 40 F-15Ks to South Korea in October 2005.

So far, 17 F-15Ks have been handed over to the Air Force. Last June, one F-15K crashed in the waters off the east coast during a nighttime training mission. The remaining 22 will arrive here in stages by the end of next year.


Source : By Jung Sung-ki (Staff Reporter) - The Korea Times (www.times.hankooki.com)
Published: January 17, 2007

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(17.01.2007)