South Korean KAI KF-X fighter

North's ace in the sleeve is always a burning Seoul Blitzo, otherwise they will get steamrolled by ROK+US and also China

for those who might have not seen it, KF-X on CATIA, remember its speculative

It's not as if any of the East Asian states don't actively despise each other but then trade and consume cultural products from each other hugely (well, at present mostly SK and Japan is exporting, but tourism is cultural product of a kind too and there is a groundswell of interest in travelling in China) anyway.

But it's a long way from 'A does not like B' to 'A will go to war with B'. Especially since as long as North Korea exists there will be more commonality than difference.

On the other hand one plan one's military capabilities based on a set of requirements and that set will inevitably include the possible future capacity of competitors.

On yet another hand, the KF-X is just the wrong sort of plane to deal with China considering it has a somewhat later time-frame than the J-20.

Without figuring out the future force structure of the ROKAF which is up in the air at this moment it's more or less pointless to speculate.

I'll bet the RoCAF will have trouble, can their F-16s even reach North Korea?

paintgun said:

North's ace in the sleeve is always a burning Seoul Blitzo, otherwise they will get steamrolled by ROK+US and also China

for those who might have not seen it, KF-X on CATIA, remember its speculative

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From these pics that KF-X looks promising.

Lacrimosa said:

I'll bet the RoCAF will have trouble, can their F-16s even reach North Korea?

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Whoops, ROKAF*

It's one of those things where you say the word in your head and you type the wrong but similarly sounding letter in its place >_>

@Equation, well it's one thing to have a nice 3D model or mockup to the final aircraft, i bet the Shenyang univ students with the shiny F-60 model can do just as well on models

other pointers to KF-X optimism would be :

- it has secured a partner, Indonesia, with talks with Turkey which kinda fizzled out
- South Korea has the track record with T-50, again Indonesia as the launch customer, and talks with Israel
- they have been very aggresive on marketing
- encouraging EADS to offer ToT for KF-X as part of their F-X bid

KF-X is pretty much an economic conscient endeavour

This is probable not the correct post to ask this question. However, what is the status of the KAI T-50 Golden Eagle? The last I read was that Indonesia purchased 16 for 500 million (31.25 million each) including training/parts and support. I bit steep for a trainer.
The aircraft is (from what I have read) still a contender with Israel, Poland, Iraq, United Arab Emirates and the Philippines.
Is there any word on a single seat attack/point defense fighter? If there is it would be expensive compared to the JF-17 unless they (the Koreans) can get the production rate high and lower the unit cost. Or is it too much political baggage with all the American components?

A clearer look at the KF-X project:

-Performance better than the existing KF-16 (F-16C/Ds Block 52)
-Electronics suite on-par with the F-35
-South Korea will be head of the project, Indonesia will fund 20% of the project, it seems that most speculators are saying it is highly likely that Turkey will make an official statement next year to join the KF-X project (and are expected to contribute 20% as well)
-A 7 year development phase with a first flight for 2016
-Usual requirements of fly-by-wire flight controls and inside the cockpit hands-on-throttle-and-stick pilot controls, a helmet-mounted display and a night vision imaging system
-'Next gen' surveillance equipment
-AESA Radar (probably American) with Korean targeting system
-Confidence that the hardware could be built in Korea but will most likely look for technical assistance for the development of software for the aircraft
-Foreign engine (EJ200 or F414)
-Weapons will be completely Korean with a short range air to air missile based on the South Korean Shin-Gung MANPAD
-Estimated cost of $5 billion for the project

And the most interesting bit:

For the KF-X to enter service after 2020, some level of low-observable or stealth capability must be factored into the design. DAPA officials said the aircraft would be initially fielded with a "basic" stealth capability, but did not define what that meant.

However, there are some clues: South Korean officials have publicly stated that shaping an airframe to achieve a reduced radar cross section is no longer a secret, and can be found in publicly available textbooks. More difficult is finding out the secret formulas used in radar absorbing materials, and Western data is not likely to be transferred to the country.

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The development cost for combat aircraft are so high now that it seams logical to have other nations share in the development costs and production (similar to the Italian/Brazilian AMX project). What to you anticipate the unit cost per aircraft to be?

Miragedriver said:

This is probable not the correct post to ask this question. However, what is the status of the KAI T-50 Golden Eagle? The last I read was that Indonesia purchased 16 for 500 million (31.25 million each) including training/parts and support. I bit steep for a trainer.
The aircraft is (from what I have read) still a contender with Israel, Poland, Iraq, United Arab Emirates and the Philippines.
Is there any word on a single seat attack/point defense fighter? If there is it would be expensive compared to the JF-17 unless they (the Koreans) can get the production rate high and lower the unit cost. Or is it too much political baggage with all the American components?

Click to expand...

The T-50 trainer is a very expensive aircraft to operate, on account of how advanced, which has been a problem for export and has often lost to the cheaper M-346. Koreans are already developing the T-50 trainer into a fighter aircraft to replace its F-5E fleet. The project is called the FA-50 and the maiden flight for the project is expected in 2012 with 60 inducted by 2013, with a total order of 150. (for now) it is planned to be equipped with an Israeli EL/M-2032 radar and will use either EJ200 or F414 engine (much lije the twin engine KF-X). As for cost, nobody is really certain, the ideal would be that the price would undercut the F-16 but Lockheed is a partner for the T-50 program (although not the FA-50) so they may object to KAI being ambitious about exporting the FA-50, but the program still hasn't made its maiden flight yet so its a waiting game to find out.