KF-X Lives?
At the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2015 held at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Oct. 21, Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI) CEO Ha Sung-yong said, “Giving up the KF-X project is like giving up the future of Korea’s aerospace industry. It doesn’t make sense to do so, as Korea has 99 percent of the localization.”
He said, “We can carry out the KF-X project as scheduled. The reconsideration of the project means giving up the aviation industry, which has positive effects on job creation and promotion of the aviation industry.” This shows a strong opposition to the recent controversy over the project reconsideration.
The KF-X project is a large national project worth 18 trillion won (US$15.83 billion) that aims to produce and deploy 120 fighter jets by 2026. However, it caused controversy over the reconsideration of the project, as the U.S. recently failed to provide four technologies, including long distance detecting radar, which is more extensive than conventional radar.
Ha added, “There has never been a fighter jet, which has been perfectly developed from the beginning in the aviation history. We already have a localization rate of more than 99 percent.”
Regarding to the refusal of transferring core technologies, Ha said, “There are reports that we already can domestically produce three out of four parts, which are currently controversial. In the KF-X project, we also can localize three parts.”
He said that it is possible to purchase the remaining component in the process of force integration, insisting, “Some, who insist to reconsider the project, say that it will be hard to integrate forces because of the difficulty even in purchasing the components themselves. However, that is not true. It is possible to buy the component, and we can also push ahead with localization even after force integration.”