Fighter Development Program Faces Crash
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea is likely to scrap an ambitious project to build its own version of a stealth fighter as it has been assessed as nonviable economically and technically, military sources said Sunday.
The fighter development program, codenamed KF-X, aims to produce a multi-role fifth-generation aircraft suited to network-centric warfare after 2020 to replace outdated F-4Es and F-5Es and to market it globally.
The Korea Development Institute (KDI) concluded last month that the KF-X program would not be affordable, according to the sources.
The KF-X development would cost at least $10 billion but bring about only $3 billion in economic benefits, making the economics of the aircraft unsustainable, said the sources, citing a KDI report over the KF-X's economic feasibility mandated by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
The KDI is updating its report to make it public by March, they said.
DAPA officials said, however, the debates on the fate of the KF-X program are still under way, as some argue the fighter development should go on despite its low economic feasibility, to acquire key aircraft technology through joint research and development with foreign partners.
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