South Korea unveils fifth prototype of KF-21 Boramae fighter

During Yoon Suk-yeol, President of the Republic of Korea, visited Korea Aerospace Industries (KIA), the KIA unveiled its fifth prototype of the KF-21 Boramae.

The Korea Defense Blog reported about this.

This prototype was originally intended to be handed over to Indonesia. However, due to Indonesia’s continued delay in payment for its share of the KF-X program, KF-21 005 will stay in South Korea.

It will probably be used by the Republic of Korea Air Force for their own flight tests.

At the same time, Indonesia will be eligible to receive KF-21 005 once it makes full payment of its share of the KF-X program.

KF-X is a joint project of the Republic of Korea and Indonesia, with 80% and 20% participation, respectively. The cost of the program was declared at the level of $5.2 billion.

This is a two-engine supersonic aircraft with a length of 13, a height of 4.5, and a wingspan of 14 meters.

It is planned to build 40 aircraft by 2028 and 120 by 2032. Before the start of serial production, 6 prototypes will be built. The percentage of the Republic of Korea in component manufacturing is about 65%.

When Indonesia recalled its engineers in 2020 due to COVID, there were speculations that Jakarta was trying to end the joint project and buy another fighter jet.

The administrative process for about 32 Indonesian engineers to rejoin Korea Aerospace Industries started in August 2021.

Starting with those 32 engineers, about 100 employees were due to return to the South Korean plant by the end of last year after Indonesia reaffirmed its commitment to the project.

As previously reported, in July 2022, the first prototype of the South Korean KF-21 supersonic fighter jet made its first flight test.