Posted on 09/24/2014 8:17:57 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea formally announced on Wednesday that it would buy 40 F-35A fighter jets from the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin in a deal that includes transfers of technology for the development of the country’s own advanced fighter jet.
South Korea picked Lockheed Martin’s F-35A as the sole choice for its air force’s new fighter jet in November and has since been negotiating the terms of the deal. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Han Min-koo called a meeting of top military procurement officials to approve the purchase, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said in a news release.
South Korea was expected to pay 120 billion won, or $115 million, per aircraft, and has set aside a total of $7 billion for its so-called FX-III project of upgrading to fighter jets with radar-evading stealth capabilities, the South Korean news media reported, citing anonymous government sources. South Korea hopes to deploy the F-35A between 2018 and 2021.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They probably could have bought twice as many F-15 SE’s for that price
Who cares...as long as the money keeps rolling in.
They paid the premium because Lockheed agreed to the technology transfer.
Have been expecting this announcement but am not so pleased to see the ROKs are “partnering” with Indonesia in developing their version of the F-16. How much of our technology that we transfer to the ROKs will end up in the hands of other nefarious nations via the Indonesians (not via the ROKs)?
Their F-15Ks are already superior to our F-15Es. Adding the Silent Eagle package to the F-15K would have been a cost effective winner.
Geez, at first glance I read this as “South Korea Family Announces Intent to Buy 40 Lockheed Fighter Jets.” That’s one rich family, LOL!
you would think so. I guess they are dead-set on stealth though, because NK would have numerical superiority I guess with all those MiG-21’s and stuff. (slightly exaggerated)
Must be a Chaebol family!
Samsung maybe?
Exactly
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