BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

MORE SOUTH KOREAN SHENANIGANS KFX concept sketch. When South Korea announced plans to buy 40 F-35 Lightning IIs last year, part of the justification was that South Korea would have access to technologies to help it build its own indigenous fighter.   That no longer seems to be the case . The South Korean F-35 acquisition has been controversial at best.  The JSF was first considered too expensive to procure, only for the bidding process to be abandoned and the F-35 chosen anyway .  While both Eurofighter and Boeing were able to get their Typhoon and Silent Eagle bids under the $7.2 billion (US) budget, that same money could only swing 40 F-35s. It makes you wonder how much further the South Korean deal will be altered . RISE IN US DOLLAR EQUALS RISE IN F-35 COST There is a great deal of bluster about how much cheaper the F-35 is getting as it nears full-rate production.  This may or may not be true for the USA, but it is certainly fals...

40 of one, 20 (used) of the other? After announcing a $6.8 billion deal to buy 40 F-35A Lightning II fighters, South Korea is now left with the quandary of filling the gap left in the F-X program.  With the original intent to purchase 60 fighters, South Korea's ROKAF (Republic of Korea Air Force) is left short 20 fighters with only $500 million of its $7.3 billion budget left. In the days of $100 million fighter jets, $25 million (each) doesn't buy you a whole lot.  Not new, anyway. Fortunately for the ROKAF, the USAF has an abundance of F-16s that it can no longer afford to fly thanks to sequestration cuts.  Instead, it has put that money towards other priorities . So now, South Korea is looking to fill its fighter gap by leasing used American F-16s . For those of you following at home, that means: The USAF can't afford to fly some of its F-16s because the F-35 is too expensive. The ROKAF couldn't afford the 60 fighters it wanted because the F-35 was...

Well...  That escalated quickly. South Korea's decision to sole-source the F-35 despite its costs and being "disqualified" has already met with criticism. From The Korea Times: “As the stealth fighter is being manufactured and simultaneously tested, the U.S. side cannot guarantee capabilities and a fixed price in accordance with the FMS and buyers will have to take responsibility for this,” an industrial source said on condition of anonymity. “What is worse, we cannot complain about it.” Ouch.

40 of these instead of 60 F-15SEs Despite initially disqualifying the F-35 on the grounds it was too expensive, South Korea has now decided to bite the bullet and order 40 units instead of the planned 60 fighters intended to be purchased under the FX-III program. There is still a provision to obtain 20 more aircraft of type to be determined later.  This likely could mean an additional 20 F-35s, or some type of "Advanced F-15 Eagle". Many of you will remember that out of the three aircraft being considered, the F-35 was the first eliminated due to its high cost.  The Eurofighter Typhoon was eliminated shortly thereafter on the grounds that the bid did not include enough two-seater aircraft .  This was odd considering the F-35 does not even have a two-seater version.  With the F-35 and Typhoon both disqualified, Boeing's F-15SE Silent Eagle was declared the de facto winner . Don't break out the champagne just yet... South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Sta...

South Korea is expected to announce the F-35 Lightning II as the winner of its F-X competition in the very near future, despite the F-35 being at one time eliminated from consideration due to costs. The real question is :  Will S. Korea spend approximately 2.2 trillion won ($2.1 billion US) more than the 8.3 trillion ($7.2 billion US) originally budgeted in order to take possession of 60 jets, or will they substantially drop the order to 40 in order to stay in budget? Either way, the reality of the F-35 is clear.  If Canada wants 65 of them, its going to have to cough up substantially more than the $9 billion set aside for acquisition.

Boeing has been on a bit of a bad luck run lately.  After winning South Korea's F-XIII competition by default, its F-15SE Silent Eagle was unceremoniously booted out of the running for not being stealthy enough. It gets worse. After word got out that the USN might be ordering a 36 more Super Hornets, the Pentagon quickly kiboshed the rumor.   Now it looks like Boeing will have to shut down production of F-18E/F if it doesn't find orders soon. Things don't look promising.  The Super Hornet is being pushed as a likely alternative to the F-35 for Canada's next fighter, but that decision looks like it going to be put off until 2015, at the earliest.  That may be too late to keep the Rhino assembly line open.  It currently only has enough orders to stay open until 2016. What else is there? Australia is a small victory, but they are only ordering few dozen Super Hornets to tide them over until the F-35 is ready. There's Brazil, but they seem to b...

Turkish TFX concept (that one in the middle looks kinda familiar...) You would think that talk of a JSF "death spiral" would encourage the Pentagon to cling on to every potential F-35 sale like a hungry dog with a turkey leg.  Recent events in Turkey would suggest otherwise, however.  A recent decision to purchase Chinese missile  defense systems has the potential of getting Turkey kicked out of the JSF club . Like Canada, Turkey is a "Level 3 Partner" in the JSF program.  Unlike Canada, however, Turkey is much more committed to the program, looking at ordering 100 (vs 65) airframes in total and possibly buying its first two within months.   The F-35 won't be Turkey's only fighter however, as it recently purchased some F-16s , not to mention plans on an indigenous fifth generation fighter design (with a little help from Saab). Proposed KAI KFX design. Turkey isn't the only country working on its own "5th generation" stealth fig...

Right for South Korea, despite the cost? Much has been made about South Korea's confusing F-X III fighter acquisition project.  After considering the F-35, F-15SE, and Typhoon, all three options have been deemed unsuitable based on price or capability.  The Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) has made their desire for the F-35 quite clear, despite the fact that is was the first fighter eliminated due to its uncertain cost. Now, the contest has been restarted , and the JSF looks to be the leading contender, again. I've been plenty hard on the F-35 in the past, and I certainly don't agree with the way the F-X III competition is being done, but you know what?  I actually think the F-35 will be a pretty good fit for the ROKAF. Why? North Korea South Korea's rowdy northern neighbor has a comparatively large military force , but their equipment is old, outdated, and sometimes fake .  The F-35's stealth design will likely have little trouble slipping thro...

Goldilocks be damned.  Too expensive, not enough two-seat models, not stealthy enough. In a move not unlike an elementary school recess game of "soccer tag", South Korea has declared the unofficial winner of its K-X competition , the F-15SE, has now been disqualified for not following rules that weren't agreed upon at the start of the game. As previously reported here, South Korea's K-X competition between the F-35A Lightning II, Eurofighter Typhoon, and F-15SE "Silent Eagle"was for 60 jet fighters to replace aging F-4s and F-5s. A hard and fast budget of 8.3 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) was set.  The F-35, in which the unit cost is still very much in flux, was the first eliminated . It could not be delivered at a fixed price due to U.S. foreign military sales regulations. Shortly after, the Eurofighter Typhoon, very much the dark horse of the competition due to close S. Korean and U.S. ties, was eliminated.  Eurofighter's bid, while under bud...

Winner, winner, kimchi dinner. After eliminating the F-35 from South Korea's FX fighter competition, Seoul has now disqualified the Eurofighter Typhoon from the process as well.  Although EADS Typhoon bid came under the 8.3 trillion won ($7.2 billion US) budget, it did so by reducing the requested amount of two-seat fighter from 15 to 6, as well as basing prices on the British pound.  (S. Korea's insistence on 15 two-seat fighters begs the question of why the single-seat only F-35 was even considered). So what can Canada learn from South Korea's FX selection? The main reason the F-35 was disqualified was because Lockheed Martin could not offer a fixed price based on the US government's foreign military sales regulations.  By American law, no foreign country can acquire US made military hardware for less than what it costs the US military.  Since the F-35 is still in development, final pricing is still unknown. Also, since the F-35's price will be determ...

Looks like the F-35 will have to sit the rest of this one out. Two of the three manufacturers vying for South Korea's FX fighter competition have both submitted bids under the US $7.2 billion dollar budget.  This effectively excludes the the third , as Seoul has made it very clear that none of the manufacturers could make it under the proposed budget, steps would be taken to restart the process from scratch. F-15SE "Silent Eagle" Both Boeing and Eurofighter have submitted last minute bids that undercut the budget limit.  Doing so, the F-15SE "Silent Eagle" and Typhoon tranche 3.  Unsurprisingly, it was Lockheed Martin that was unable to follow suit with the F-35A.  The Pentagon's foreign military sales program (FMS) forbids foreign military buyers from getting a better price than the U.S. military. Currently, the F-15SE would seem like the favorite, as S. Korea has never before bought European jets, and the ROKAF already flies the similar F-15K...

South Korean F-4 Phantom II, due for replacement. Previously, I mentioned South Korea's "F-X" fighter competition as "one to watch"since it pitted the F-35 against the Eurofighter and Silent Eagle...  Well, you might as well watch paint dry, because nothing is happening. Seoul has suspended the program  because none of the bids have come under the $7.2 billion (US) budget.  Well, duh. Canada has allotted $9 billion for 65 aircraft , not counting long term costs.  South Korea wants 60, so the budgets are way off for a similar amount of aircraft.  Did Seoul believe that the manufacturers would keep undercutting each other until jets were being sold at a loss?  That doesn't happen. So what happens next?  Will South Korea up the budget?  Will it reduce the amount of aircraft needed?  Or will it simply wait until one of the manufacturers comes in with an acceptable offer?  Eurofighter has recently made claims about lowering the Typ...

Korea's KF-X fighter concept. South Korea has recently extended the bidding process on phase 3 of its F-X fighter program .  This program is quite interesting as it includes two fighters currently being considered for the CF-18 replacement as part of Canada's "reset" and "reevaluation" of the F-35. The first jet is, obviously, the F-35.  The second, the Eurofighter Typhoon.  The third, Boeing's F-15SE "Silent Eagle" isn't on Canada's current shopping list...  But should be.  Each fighter obviously has its own strengths and weaknesses, of course, but the main selling point for Seoul is price.  Hence, the bidding extension to keep the offers coming in. There is another aspect to the F-X competition however.  Seoul isn't just looking for fighter jets, it's looking for a partner to help it develop a planned indigenous stealth fighter, the KF-X. Although many have speculated one way or another, this one is currently ...