South Korea’s KF-X to Challenge Fighter jets from Boeing, Dassault and Russia

KF-X jet (DAPA image)

The KF-X fighter jet rolled-out by South Korea’s Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) could challenge the best of 4.5 generation jets represented by Dassault Rafale, Boeing F/A-18, F-15EX Eagle II besides the Russian Su-35.

In addition, its expected lower sticker price (compared to the Western jets) should make it attractive to potential customers of fighters -in-development such as Turkish TF-X, the Indian Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and the Pakistani-Chinese JF-17 Block III.

On April 9, South Korea’s Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) drew the curtains to unveil its first home-grown supersonic fighter jet prototype, the KF-X (designated KF-21 and nicknamed Boramae or “young hawk trained for hunting.”

While the KF-21 is still a year away from its first flight and will likely join the country’s Air Force by the middle of the current decade, it has already found its first international customer- Indonesia. The South-East-Asian country will licence-manufacture some 50 aircraft and receive technology to help assemble the aircraft. Indonesia has reportedly paid just $165 million since it joined the program in July 2014 – while it agreed to contribute 20% of the 8.8 trillion won ($7.9 billion) project cost.

However, Indonesian Defense minister Prabowo Subianto who was present at  the roll-out ceremony reportedly gave the go-ahead for “negotiations at the working-level," to find a way for Jakarta to fly back into the project. Some reports said Indonesia’s proposals include a combination of barter trade and reduced cash which makes for its up-front contribution.

What sets the KF-21 apart from other in-progress aircraft is South Korea’s formidable reputation for success in the design, development and export of defense equipment. The Republic of Korea (ROK) defense sector has become a prominent exporter of aerospace, land, and naval equipment and is second only to China as an emerging arms exporter.

The KAI which is building the KF-21 jet with support from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and several ROK defence technology firms, has the experience of over a decade in developing its T-50 advanced jet trainer and the FA-50 light fighter jet. Its export successes are worth mentioning; Indonesia and Thailand have ordered The Training/Fighter variant of the T-50 while a deal with Argentina to sell the more advanced FA-50 had to be scuttled due the U.K. denying export licence for some British-made components.

Impressive technologies:

For a first time effort to create a 4.5 generation fighter jet, the technologies amassed by KAI is truly impressive.

Hong Yoon-seong, the lead Hanwha Systems developer in charge of the AESA radar being developed for the KF-X project had said in a 2020  interview published in the Korean media that the KF-X AESA radar will have around 1,200-1,300 Transmitter-Receiver Module (TRM) modules. (F-22's radar has 2,000 and F-35's radar has 1,200).

The KF-X AESA radar is expected to perform better than AN/APG-83 being installed on Korean KF-16V, which is similar to the F-16V, the most recent version of the F-16 jet.

Hanwha Systems developed the radar’s antenna and power supply, which were then integrated and tested with ELTA Systems (Israel) signal processor. By November 2019, 10 overseas and 6 domestic aerial testing sorties had been carried out. These tests proved that the HW works as intended.

For the KF-X project, Hanwha Systems is also developing the Electro-Optical Targeting Pod and the Infrared Searcher and Tracker (IRST) which searches and tracks antiaircraft target and provides the azimuth, high angle, and infrared image information of the enemy airplane or anti-aircraft missile.

Heavy weapons payload

The KF-X takes design cues from the U.S. F-22, a stealth aircraft, but lacks an internal weapons bay that is a must-have for a stealth fighter. It carries weapons and fuel pods externally rather than in an internal carriage. From the stealth-friendly shape of the KF-21, it can be surmised that a fifth generation fighter could be a future upgrade. That the KAI designers have gone in a twin engine configuration indicates an intention to create a heavy fighter with weapons payload similar to the F-15 or Dassault Rafale.

The other birds of this flock that just lack stealth capability and are powered by two engines include Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Boeing F-15EX Eagle II, Dassault Rafale and Sukhoi Su-35.