Above and Beyond
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has made an early delivery of its FA-50GF light attack aircraft for the Polish Air Force. Poland requested the early delivery to showcase the FA-50GF at its Armed Forces Day event scheduled for Aug. 15.
According to industry sources on July 10, KAI completed the delivery of two FA-50GF units to Poland on the July 9 (local time). The delivery was made a month earlier than the original schedule set for late August. The FA-50GFs delivered will undergo assembly and test flights, among other tests, upon arrival.
The Polish variant of the FA-50, designated as FA-50GF or Gap Filler, which refers to the rapid replacement of local obsolete fighters and the introduction of new fighter jets to fill the void in power.
Last year, Poland signed a contract with KAI to introduce 48 FA-50 models at a cost of about 4 trillion won (US$). They paid an advance payment of approximately 1.2 trillion won by November last year. Accordingly, KAI will first deliver a total of 12 FA-50GF models this year, and from November 2025 to September 2028, it plans to supply an additional 36 FA-50PL models incorporating the Polish side's requirements.
The FA-50GF is similar to our Air Force’s TA-50 Block 2 trainer, but differs in that a commercial embedded GPS inertial navigation system (EGI) has been applied to the existing GPS system.
Meanwhile, the FA-50PL will be equipped with Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar and Head-Mounted Display (HMD) equipment.
Furthermore, expectations are rising that KAI and Poland might push for the establishment of an FA-50 light attack aircraft Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) center during President Yoon Suk-yeol's state visit to Poland this week. Last month, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak stated at the FA-50 export-type No. 1 delivery ceremony held at the KAI headquarters in Sacheon, Gyeongnam, “We are discussing the establishment of a service center in Poland based on the cooperation between KAI and Poland’s PGZ.”