Good News for KF-X
On Nov. 22, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) signed a provisional contract with Indonesia for the country’s investment in the Korean Fighter Experimental (KF-X) project.
According to the contract, Indonesia is to bear 20 percent of the system development cost associated with the KF-X project, which totals 8.67 trillion won (US$7.5 billion), while obtaining a prototype and technical data in return for its participation in aircraft design and component production. The cost is to be shared by KAI and the Indonesian government and KAI and PTDI, Indonesia’ state-run defense company, are to be involved in work sharing.
KAI is planning to start the development of the system within this year in contract with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration of Korea. At present, Indonesia is working on a similar program under the project name of IFX and is planning to import at least 50 fighter jets from Korea. A total of 18 trillion won (US$16 billion) is scheduled to be invested in the KF-X project, and KAI is looking to sell more than 1,000 fighter jets through the project.
In the meantime, KAI announced on Nov. 22 that it is working on an autopilot system required for the fighter jets’ low-altitude infiltration and terrain crash prevention based on automatic topographical recognition. It added that it designed a flight control law so that the fighter jets can maintain level flight under any circumstances.
According to the KF-X project plan, air-to-air fighter jets are slated to be produced between 2025 and 2028, and air-to-sea and air-to-ground ones are added from 2028. The autopilot system is to be tested from the same year, too.