Fighters vie in Korean F-X Phase 3 program

South Korea aims to choose a supplier for 60 advanced fighters next year, balancing industrial ambitions against a need to deter North Korea and concerns about emerging Chinese and Russian air-to-air threats.

Contenders for the F-X Phase 3 program are the Boeing F-15SE Silent Eagle, Eurofighter Typhoon and Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Each has merits. Local industry is helping to develop the Silent Eagle, a stealthier version of the F-15K, and makes major parts for all F-15s, while the air force shows strong signs of wanting the F-35’s stealth for the crucial strike mission. In a market dominated by U.S. manufacturers, the Typhoon must rely heavily on its flight performance and on Eurofighter’s great scope for technology transfer.

The Typhoon was little more than a stalking horse in F-X Phase 1, in which Boeing won an order for 40 F-15Ks in 2002. Only Boeing bid for F-X Phase 2, resulting in a contract for 21 more F-15Ks in 2008. The F-X requirement emerged in the late 1980s and has met repeated budgetary delays. Phase 3 will not move to a decision next year unless parliament allocates money for the aircraft.

The Phase 3 aircraft would partly replace F-4 Phantoms and F-5 Tigers, and would be replaced in the strike role by 2030 by a domestically developed combat drone. Even with the new aircraft, the fighter force will drop to 400 from 500 by 2020.

South Korea faces more than 300 North Korean heavy artillery pieces in range of Seoul, and, far from the border, an uncertain number of nuclear ballistic missiles of unknown quality. The ability to rapidly knock out guns and missiles that threaten cities while pounding command bunkers is critically important. The air threat from North Korea is not an immediate concern.

South Korean fighters would not fly more than 1,000 km (621 mi.) to destroy North Korean nuclear missiles. The most northerly F-15K base is 430 km from Pyongyang. Also, China and Russia may introduce their own stealth fighters—the Chengdu J-20 and Sukhoi PAK-FA, respectively—this decade.

An ability to penetrate hostile airspace covertly, the strongest selling point of the F-35, is an “immensely important capability,” said air force Col. Taek-Hwan Song, at a seminar in Seoul in May. Song, leader of the department that plans air force requirements, expressed a relaxed view on the affordability of the F-35 and its schedule for service entry, despite cost overruns and delays. “A general misunderstanding about the fifth-generation stealth fighter is that it is expensive; it’s never too expensive,” he said. As for the aim of putting the F-X Phase 3 aircraft into service in 2018, just as the U.S. Air Force makes the F-35 operational, he notes that South Korea’s definition of operational is less demanding than that of USAF.

The Silent Eagle has the advantage of offering more work to Korea Aerospace Industries, which builds the wings and forward fuselages of F-15s for all customers and is helping to develop and make the conformal weapon bays fitted on the sides of the proposed stealthier version, for munitions, equipment and fuel. The stealthier F-15 would also have much commonality with 60 F-15Ks, cutting operational costs, though the version would be unique to South Korea unless Saudi Arabia, a potential customer, also buys it.

The Typhoon has an advantage over U.S. competitors on the issue of technology transfer that South Korea demands for its proposed KF-X fighter in the 2020s, since Eurofighter partners EADS and BAE Systems are not subject to Washington’s strict controls. Moreover, U.S. support for Asian fighter programs has consistently avoided creating competitors for U.S. aircraft.

Eurofighter says its aircraft can counter stealthy attackers. A flight of Typhoons flying in a wall formation can detect them at operationally useful ranges by sharing and triangulating azimuth data from passive sensors. Typhoons may even have detected Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors that way last year.

Such counter-stealth capability would be valued against the J-20 and PAK-FA, but one F-X Phase 3 program official says an excellent strike capability would be valued more highly. Unless the South Korean air force, structured for combined operations with the U.S. Air Force against North Korea, transformed into a force for unilateral action, chances for a non-U.S. aircraft buy seem low.

 

-aviationweek.com

Pakistan in talks for additional F-16s

Pakistan is in negotiations with the U.S. to get more Lockheed Martin F-16s beyond those it has on order, while at the same time it is developing its defense manufacturing capability to reduce its reliance on the U.S.

Pakistan air force Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman disclosed this, though no firm numbers were given. Qamar spoke to Aviation Week in Melbourne, Australia, where he was attending an air chiefs’ conference.

In 2006 the U.S. Congress agreed to give Pakistan 28 F-16C/Ds under an excess defense articles initiative. The first 14 aircraft were recently delivered. Qamar says negotiations are ongoing for the remaining 14.

Pakistan has a total of 63 F-16s—45 A/Bs and 18 C/Ds. Qamar says all the A/Bs are to undergo a mid-life upgrade and become C/D aircraft “close to Block 50” standard by 2013-14. The first three A/Bs are being upgraded at Turkish Aerospace Industries.

Pakistan is also an ally of China, and the countries are jointly developing the JF-17 fighter, which is being produced at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra. Qamar says the second squadron of JF-17s will go into operation in late March, and at that time the Chinese Nanchang A-5, a ground attack aircraft, will begin to be phased out.

Qamar says he has made a concerted effort to increase the manufacturing capability of Pakistan’s defense industry because the country has, in the past, been subject to sanctions and embargoes.

Chengdu F-7s and Dassault Mirages will be phased out as we get JF-17s,” says Qamar. “Some of our Mirages are the oldest in the world,” dating back to 1967. Phasing these out is a top priority because they are difficult and costly to maintain; no one is producing spare parts for them anymore. “We are getting second-hand parts, but we don’t know” their provenance. “It’s a flight-safety issue and a nightmare for me,” he adds.

When asked about data links to tie F-16s to JF-17s, Qamar says Pakistan is working to develop its own solution. “We have Link 16 on the F-16s. We will not fiddle with Link 16 and not have direct linkages [between the JF-17s] with the F-16” He says an indigenous tactical data link is being worked on. It will send information from the JF-17 to a ground station where there will be an interface, he says, adding there will be a short delay, and then the information will be sent to the F-16s.

Pakistan also has different types of airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft. Pakistan has three Saab Erieyes and will receive its fourth mid-year, says Qamar. This is its last Saab Erieye on order. Pakistan is also due to receive mid-year its first Shaanxi ZDK-03. Four are on order and the first rolled out of the Shaanxi Aircraft factory last November.

Besides AEW&C aircraft, Qamar says, “we are talking to some Western companies about tankers.” The country now has four Ilyushin Il-78s.

And UAVs are eagerly sought. They already have Selex Galileo Falco UAVs, and Qamar says an agreement has been reached with the Italian company to allow some Falco UAVs to be made in Pakistan both for the local market and for export. Production will start this year, he says. In the past, Pakistan reportedly wanted to have the Falco armed, a request that Italy rejected. Qamar says the Falco UAVs made in Pakistan will carry no weapons and will be used for reconnaissance and surveillance, mostly of areas where terrorists may be entrenched.

A longer-term issue is whether Pakistan needs a fifth-generation fighter. Rival India, is teaming up with Russia to develop a fifth-generation fighter based on Russia’s T-50. When asked if Pakistan would like to be part of the Chengdu J-20, fifth-generation fighter program, Qamar says: “We don’t have any involvement in this development so far. This seems to be an indigenous effort and we will keenly watch it. Obviously, China is a very good friend.” But it will be years before the J-20 becomes operational in the Chinese air force, he adds.

 

-aviationweek.com