Text FW: Riding on the Golden Eagle

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Riding on the Golden Eagle

Seoul Pins Economic Hopes on T-50 Sales

By JUNG SUNG-KI
Published: 9 February 2009

SEOUL - South Korea is accelerating efforts to make its first overseas sale of the T-50 Golden Eagle, tying the success of the supersonic trainer jet to becoming a major arms exporter and reviving its economy.

After achieving $1 billion in defense exports in 2008, its largest amount since 1975, the Seoul government has set a goal of $3 billion by 2012. Industry and military officials agree that sales of the T-50, built by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Lockheed Martin in 2001, are essential to attaining that goal.

The attention given to the T-50 also has cast a pall over the KF-X program, aimed at developing indigenous stealthy fighters by 2020, because of a proposed light-attack variant of the Golden Eagle.

But thus far, the joint international marketing of the trainer by KAI and Lockheed has produced no tangible results.

"It is of no doubt that selling T-50s will be central to boosting the country's defense exports. We expect the first sale to be sealed this year, as several deals are in the works," said Jeon Young-bok, head of the bureau of arms export policy in South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

"It's too early to judge the sales of T-50s have been stalled, given it normally takes about 10 years to sell new aircraft to other nations," Jeon said, referring to ongoing tenders in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Poland and Singapore.

As for criticism of the T-50 that the approximately $25 million jet is "too luxurious" to use as a trainer aircraft, he continued, "I believe the T-50 will eventually dominate the global trainer market. Simply, customers can't help choosing a quality product in the end."

DAPA and KAI officials say they expect the T-50 and its attack variants to secure about 30 percent of the global trainer market, or 1,100 of 3,300 trainers needed, within 25 years. They claim the Golden Eagle can satisfy air forces around the world because it is regarded as the only high-performance, supersonic trainer in production.

The single-engine jet features digital flight controls and a modern, ground-based training system. It is designed to have the maneuverability, endurance and systems to prepare pilots to fly next-generation fighters such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, the F-22 Raptor, the Rafale and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The jet has a top speed of Mach 1.4 and an operational range of 1,851 kilometers.

Who Will Be 1st Customer?

With negotiations with the United Arab Emirates and Singapore at a stalemate, Seoul is promoting a sale to Poland.

Sources say Warsaw wants to acquire 16 lead-in fighter trainers to replace its PZL TS-11 Iskra trainers and is considering either T-50s or upgraded versions of Finland's surplus Hawk trainers.

Following a visit by Polish President Lech Kaczynski to Seoul in December, a South Korean military delegation led by former Vice Defense Minister Kim Jong-cheon visited Poland Jan. 18-23 to discuss a T-50 deal. A Polish delegation led by its Air Force commander, Lt. Gen. Andrzej Blasik, flew Jan. 28 to South Korea for a five-day stay.

"According to the Polish military delegation, the Korean T-50 meets all technical criteria to become Poland's training jet," Poland's ambassador to South Korea, Marek Calka, wrote in an e-mail. "The Polish government will soon invite tenders. Polish military experts perceive a potential Korean offer as a front-runner."

South Korea has been in an uphill battle to sell T-50s to the United Arab Emirates in competition with Italy's Aermacchi M-346. The UAE government is to announce a final bidder in April.

Seoul's Yonhap news agency reported Jan. 29 that the Middle East nation's trainer acquisition program would be worth $3 billion.

During his Jan. 16-28 trip to the Middle East, South Korea's National Assembly speaker, Kim Hyung-o, met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, who concurrently serves as deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces, to tout the T-50, according to Yonhap.

However, the prince sought more attractive offset deals from South Korea, the news agency reported, and a modified offer will be made this month.

Seoul's industry and commerce minister is scheduled to visit Abu Dhabi before Feb. 20, when the International Defence Exhibition and Conference will take place there, the Yonhap report said.

The T-50 also is competing with the M-346 for a $500 million deal in Singapore.

FA-50 vs. KF-X

Debate has heated up here over a potential move to replace the Air Force's older fighters with the T-50's light-attack variant, the FA-50 which opponents say could kill the KF-X program.

KAI was awarded in December a $300 million contract to reconfigure four T-50 prototypes to FA-50 aircraft by 2012.

Once mass production starts by 2013, the Air Force would order about 60 FA-50s initially to replace its aging A-37 attack jets and F-4/ F-5 aircraft in the low-tier backup role to the service's high-end KF-16s, F-15Ks and fifth-generation aircraft to be procured, according to sources at KAI and DAPA.

This has raised concerns among local arms developers that the FA-50 could kill the ill-fated KF-X project.

The KF-X aims to develop a fighter by 2020, build 120 of them to replace the F-4s and F-5s, and then sell more globally. The single-seat, twin-engine jet would be stealthier than either Dassault's Rafale or the Eurofighter Typhoon, but not as stealthy as Lockheed Martin's F-35, according to the state-funded Agency for Defense Development, which runs the KF-X program.

In December 2007, the Korea Development Institute, a private economic policy think tank, concluded the KF-X would cost at least $10 billion but could be expected to reap only $3 billion in economic benefits.

"For the KF-X program, the FA-50 development is like rubbing salt into the wound," said a defense expert at a state research institute. "I believe the incumbent Lee Myung-bak administration, which put a top priority on efficient budget management, would also not likely choose the unaffordable KF-X option easily."

E-mail: jsungki@defensenews.com.


* Korea Aerospace Industries