S. Korea to complete radar development for homegrown jets by 2026

[THE INVESTOR] South Korea has kicked off development of an advanced radar for its indigenous fighter jet project set for completion by 2026, the military affiliated arms procurement agency said Wednesday.

According to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the state-run Agency for Defense Development held a meeting on development and systems integration for the active electronically scanned array for the Korean Fighter Experimental, or KF-X, project. 

The meeting -- held in the ADD headquarters in Daejeon -- was attended by officials from the Defense Ministry, DAPA, Joint Chiefs of Staff and Air Force, as well as civilian consultants and officials from companies related to development of the radar system.

The 18 trillion won ($16.5 billion) jet project seeks to produce 120 fighter jets with domestic technology, and deploy them at the Air Force by 2032. They will replace the older F-4 and F-5 jets currently in service.

ADD official said that the first prototype radars will be produced in the second half of 2020, after which the system will undergo five years of testing atop a KF-X prototype jet, from 2021 to 2026.

AESA-equipped ships or aircrafts are known to remain stealthy while sending out radar signals, due to the fact that signals from AESA radars are spread out across a band of frequencies and are difficult to detect over background noise.

South Korea had decided to develop its own AESA radar system after the U.S. rejected its request to transfer core technologies to be applied to the KF-X jets. The technologies included the AESA radar, radio frequency jammer, electronic optics targeting pod and infrared search and track system.

There have been concerns here the project may founder. A DAPA official had admitted that an overseas purchase of the radar was not out of the question, albeit only as a contingency plan, though it is not yet a viable option.

South Korea and the U.S. held their first high-level talks on transferring jet technologies for the KF-X project last month, although details on which technologies will and will not be transferred had not been determined. It was attended by delegations including South Korean Vice Defense Minister Hwang In-mo and David Shear, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, from the U.S. side.

“We will pool all the efforts and expertise within Korea for successful development of a homegrown AESA radar. ... Through this we will not only procure the ability to independently upgrade the KF-X jets, but also contribute greatly to the country’s aerospace industry,” said Jung Kwang-sun, the head of the KF-X program group at the DAPA.

Local defense firm Hanwha Thales in April was picked as the preferred bidder to build a prototype of the advanced radar system.

The firm’s CEO Chang Si-kweon had said in June that his company plans to produce a working model of the radar by July and roll out early versions of the prototype in 2017 and 2018.

He expressed confidence that the company will succeed in developing AESA radars, saying parent company Hanhwa Group has vowed to provide all the necessary support.


By Yoon Min-sik/The Korea Herald (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)