S. Korea's bidding for fighter project falls through

A bid for South Korea's indigenous fighter development program failed on Monday due to a lack of bidders, leading to a second auction later this month, the state arms procurement agency said.

Codenamed KF-X, the 8.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion) project calls for the country to develop and produce some 120 fighter jets of the F-16 class to replace its aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s.

"After closing the bid on Monday, the Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. was found to be the sole applier," an official of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration told reporters, citing the country's sole aircraft manufacturer who joined hands with Lockheed Martin of the U.S. for the project.

South Korea's top air carrier Korean Air Line Co. was supposed to place a bid jointly with Europe's Airbus Defense and Space, but they failed to do so, he added.

At least two bidders are needed to make the auction valid, according to local laws.

"The process for a second bidding will start tomorrow to be closed around the end of this month," the official said, noting that the team of Korean Air Line and Airbus "will make their bid at that time."

After reaching a verbal agreement last week, the two companies were scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding to take part in the project, but "they appeared to need more time," another official said on condition of anonymity.

"The bidding failure today would cause a delay in the project," he said. After closing the bid on Monday, the DAPA had planned to choose a preferred bidder next month before a final selection around June at the earliest.

Experts and industry watchers expect fierce competition between KAI and Korean Air Line.

KAI has a technical edge over Korean Air based upon its experience developing the T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer and the country's utility helicopter, Surion, while Korean Air has larger investment capacity.

Airbus would also be able to complement Korean Air in terms of technical issues, they added. The South Korean military decided to use the twin-engine platform over the single-engine one, and Airbus is familiar with the platform after building the multi-role fighter, Eurofighter. (Yonhap)