[Yonhap News Photo]
US engine maker General Electric has been selected over Eurojet as a preferred bidder to provide an engine that will power South Korea's new home-made fighter jets, officials said Thursday.
GE's F414 powerplant installed on Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet has received good marks in an evaluation of technology levels, technology transferability, as well as the price, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said. A contract would be signed in June. Eurojet had offered its EJ200 turbofan engine used to power the Eurofighter Typhoon.
In January South Korea officially launched its Korean Fighter Experimental (KF-X) project to develop home-made fighter jets amid lingering doubts on whether it could acquire key technologies disallowed by Washington. The project, which costs a total of 18 trillion won (15.2 billion US dollars) for development and production, is aimed at manufacturing fighter jets that would replace South Korea's aged fleet of US-made F-4 and F-5 fighters.
A consortium of Korea Aerospace Industries, the country's sole military aircraft maker, and US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin was selected as the main contractor. Indonesia agreed to invest $1.3 billion in return for receiving one prototype plane and gaining access to some technical data and information involving the project.
DAPA has promised to come up with six units of a home-grown prototype by 2021. After flight tests for four years, it plans to produce 120 fighter jets from 2026 through 2032.
Initially, South Korea had tried to develop the plane by 2025, but the targeted year has been pushed back due to a dispute over the transfer of key technologies used for stealth fighters.
DAPA officials sad they would develop, acquire or localize all technologies needed for the project, but concerns remain over whether they can do so because Washington is reluctant to allow Lockheed to transfer technologies related to the active electronically scanned array radar and other core components.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
