Breaking news
South Korea and Indonesia to ink deal for the joint development of the KF-X fighter aircraft.
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World Defense & Security News - Indonesia & South Korea
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| South Korea and Indonesia to ink deal for the joint development of the KF-X fighter aircraft | |||
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South Korea and Indonesia will ink a deal by the end of this month regarding their collaboration in the development of the KF-X (Korean Fighter – Experimental) programme, according to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency. This is the project that will lead into the development of an indigenous stealth fighter aircraft that will eventually replace legacy F-4 and F-5 aircraft.
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 Indonesian future C103 Block I (IF-X) fighter jet project unveiled at IndoDefence 2014 |
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The South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) stated that "Currently our preferred bidder company and Indonesia's authorities are vigorously leading their negotiations and they plan to sign a tentative contract within October". The new aircraft could be inducted into service from 2025 and onwards.
This is the second deal between the countries in the joint development of the KF-X project. In the past, the two sides had signed an agreement according to which Indonesia would cover 20% of the overall cost and would procure around 50 new aircraft. According to DAPA’s officials, the programme would be led by Korean Aerospace Industries. After the signing of the agreement between the two governments and the industries involved, the project would start immediately. The programme seemed to have suffered a blow when the US Government had declined South Korea’s proposal to acquire, through offsets, critical technology from the Lockheed Martin F-35A procurement, that would then be used in the KF-X development. Seoul has signed a deal to procure 40 F-35 aircraft. |
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