Military Exports
Thailand selected Korea’s T-50 trainer as its next trainer jet aircraft. With this selection, Korea has defeated China in the overseas military hardware market for the first time. This also signals the beginning of hotter competition between Korea and China in weapons exports.
“The Thai government has decided to purchase four units of the T-50 trainer,” said a government official. “The contract has a very special meaning for Korea, since Korea won a duel with China in Southeast Asia, which China has a big political influence over.
On Sept. 17, the Thai government will sign the contract with Korea Aerospace Industries and make an announcement about it. The contract is valued at around 100 billion won (US$86 million). But the Thai government will sign a follow-up contract to introduce an additional 24 units next month. Including incidental expenses, the volume of the project will rise to 800 to 900 billion won (US$687 to $773 million). So, this project will be the largest as a T-50 export deal.
In 2011, Korea exported 16 trainers to Indonesia in 2011, and 12 FA-50 light fighters to the Philippines, which were remodeled based on the trainer. In 2013, Iraq imported 24 FA-50 airplanes from Korea. Thailand began to push forward with the trainer project last year. In the first place, the U.S., Russia, and Italy showed interest in the project. But over time, Korea and China formed a two-way race.
Korea’s T-50 appealed to Thailand with its high performance and good export records, while China competed with Korea by showing off its L-15 trainer. The T-50 trainer’s advancement into Thailand has much greater significance than its earlier advancements into Indonesia and the Philippines.
Even though Thailand is a U.S. ally, the nation professes that it implements balanced diplomacy between the U.S. and China, while maintaining a close relationship with China. In particular, while competing with the U.S. for supremacy over Southeast Asia, China is regarding Thailand as a base through which it expands its geopolitical influence by using the country as a front to keep its national interests.
This deal has reinforced the position of the T-50 trainer, which will apply for the next trainer T-X project of the U.S. in 2017. The T-X project amounts to 38 trillion won (US$32.6 billion), a mammoth-sized budget.