KF-21 fighter jet defies doubters and takes to the skies

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KF-21 fighter jet defies doubters and takes to the skies

The domestically developed KF-21 takes to the skies for the first time in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang on Tuesday afternoon. [DEFENSE ACQUISITION PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION]

The domestically developed KF-21 takes to the skies for the first time in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang on Tuesday afternoon. [DEFENSE ACQUISITION PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION]

 
Korea's domestically developed KF-21 fighter took to the skies for the first time on Tuesday afternoon, more than six years after its development began amid doubts about its price tag and technological feasibility.
 
Piloted by Maj. Ahn Jun-hyeon of the 52nd Flight Training Wing, the KF-21 took off from a runway of the 3rd Flight Training Wing Air Force base near the headquarters of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang, around 3:40 p.m. Tuesday and safely landed at 4:13 p.m.
 
The success of the KF-21's flight test was announced in a press release by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the state arms procurement agency.
 
The KF-21, also dubbed the Boramae, flew at about 400 kilometers (250 miles) per hour during the test, according to DAPA.
 
With the successful flight test, Korea is now one step closer to becoming the eighth country or group to complete development of a domestic supersonic fighter after the United States, Russia, China, Japan, France, Sweden and a European consortium comprised of Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
 
The test came more than 15 months after a prototype of the KF-21 was unveiled in a grand ceremony in Sacheon that was attended by President Moon Jae-in, Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, KAI representatives and defense officials from Korea and Indonesia.
 
The development of the KF-21 has been called the most expensive military project in Korean history, with a price tag of approximately 8.5 trillion won ($7.8 billion) for development alone.  
 
Approximately 1.6 trillion won, or 20 percent, is to be paid by Indonesia, according to a renegotiated cost-sharing accord announced by DAPA in November.
 
Plans to create a homegrown fighter jet were first announced in 2001 by President Kim Dae-jung in an Air Force Academy graduation speech, when Kim told cadets, "We'll let you ride fighter jets developed by Korea."
 
The roadmap to an indigenous fighter jet began to slowly materialize in 2002, when the Joint Chiefs of Staff made a long-term plan to develop an upgraded fighter jet to replace the KF-16 multirole fighter.
 
Although two studies by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses and Korea Development Institute separately concluded in 2003 and 2007 that the project was not realistic, a government-commissioned study by Konkuk University concluded the fighter's development was economically feasible.
 
North Korea's November 2010 shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed two marines and two civilians, shifted the military's focus from developing a replacement for the KF-16 to a stealth fighter that could evade enemy air-radar systems.
 
Aimed at replacing the Air Force's dated McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Northrop F-5 supersonic fighters, the KF-21 Boramae was envisioned as a 4.5-generation aircraft on par with the latest F-16 but less stealthy than the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II developed by Lockheed Martin.
 
Formidable technological obstacles remained in the development of a domestic 4.5-generation fighter, which officially took off when DAPA signed a fighter development contract with KAI, the country's sole aircraft maker, in December 2015.
 
During the KF-21's development process, Korean engineers localized four key technologies needed for the indigenous stealth fighter, but whose transfer had been blocked by the United States: the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system, infrared search and tracking system, electro-optical targeting pods and radio frequency jammers.
 

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
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