Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and KAI said on March 1 that "the first prototype of the Korean-style fighter jet (KF-X) will be released to the public through a release ceremony in April."
It is the first time in more than five years that it has been working on developing KF-X prototype that started at the end of December 2015.
KF-X is the first fighter made with Korea’s technology. The late former President Kim Dae-jung stressed the need of developing a fighter at the Air Force Academy`s graduation ceremony speech in 2001.
Since then, it took 13 years to review the feasibility of the project and materialize the project. In particular, it was rejected while trying to receive key technology transfer from the U.S. and suffered a stranded crisis.
The KF-X is a 4.5-generation fighter similar to the U.S. F-35A stealth fighter, which is considered one of the fifth generation. "KF-X has not been developed for the purpose of stealth capabilities, but various research will continue as it has stealth-shaped features and has secured its own platform," said Chung Kwang-sun, head of the KF-X division of DAPA.
KAI is currently building six prototypes for flight testing. There are four single-seated seats with one pilot on board and two double-seated seats with a rear seat.
They will begin their first flight in the second half of next year and go through a total of 2,200 SOTY (flight counts) over four years. In addition, two prototypes for ground test and durability test are also being manufactured.
KF-X, which was selected as a national policy project, is the largest arms development project, where about 8.8 trillion won ($8 billion) will be spent on research and development alone.
After completing development in 2026, it is going to mass-produce a total of 120 units and deploy them to the Air Force by 2032. Cost of mass-production is estimated to be around 9.3 trillion won.
KF-X is developed in two stages. First of all, it will be the first stage to have basic flight performance and air-to-air combat capabilities, and then to have air-to-ground combat capabilities through additional armed tests. About 700 billion won will be spent on additional armed tests.
"KF-X has a 65% localization rate based on its price to achieve its business goal of being the first fighter jet to be made with domestic technology," said Chung Kwang-sun, head of head of the KF-X division of DAPA.
The production inducement effect of KF-X is estimated to be about 24.4 trillion won, the value-added inducement effect is about 5.9 trillion won, the technical ripple effect is about 49.5 trillion won, and the employment inducement effect is estimated to be about 110,000.
In fact, by the end of last year, job creation was tallied at 11,854 people, including KAI's secondary suppliers, since the start of the project in January 2016.
DAPA and KAI also unveiled another national policy project, the "Small Armed Helicopter (LAH). LAH is intended to replace the Army's aging attack helicopter (500MD, AH-1S), which will cost about 664.3 billion won for research and development and about 6 trillion won for mass production.
