The first successful test flight of the Korean KF-21 Boramae fighter took place today, six and a half years after the start of the project.
The fighter jet took off from the South Korean Air Force’s 3rd Flight Training Squadron in Sacheon, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul, where its manufacturer, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), is based.
According to the news site Yonhap News, the KF-21 took off at 3:40 p.m. and landed at 4:13 p.m. (local time) for its maiden flight. Officials had initially planned to conduct the test in the morning, but delayed it by several hours due to weather conditions.
The speed at which the project is progressing is remarkable, since only at the beginning of the month, the KF-21 was performing its first runway tests. Although at that time, it had already been reported by several sources that the first flight would take place this month. And so it happened.
The dream of a fighter of its own
The KF-X (Korea Fighter eXperimental) project, to develop a Korean fighter aircraft was officially born in December 2015 when South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) signed the fighter development contract with Korea Aerospace Industries.
The first phase of the project, budgeted at around $6.18 billion, had Indonesia as a partner, which was to cover %20 of that cost. In return, starting in 2026, the archipelago country was to receive the technology transfer needed to produce 60 of these fighters locally.
However, Jakarta kept delaying and spacing out its contributions until by the end of the first phase, it had only paid a quarter of its commitments and Indonesia’s actual status in the project is unknown, but the country’s flag still appears next to the Korean flag on the prototype that has just flown.
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But South Korea shouldered the project and the development continues apace, as there is a pressing need to renew fleets of obsolete fighter aircraft, such as the Republic of Korea Air Force’s (ROKAF) F-4E Phantom IIs, for which 40 KF-21 Block 1s will be produced between 2026 and 2028.
See also: South Korea seeks to replace its aging F-4 and F-5 fighters as soon as possible
So far, five KF-21 prototypes have been launched for test purposes and the sixth will be ready later this month. The prototypes are scheduled to perform 2,000 or more test missions, which will include simulations of real tactical situations and network combat missions, to achieve completion of the overall fighter development by 2026.
Initially, the KF-21 Boramae will be armed with German firm Diehl’s IRIS-T short-range air-to-air missiles and MBDA’s Meteor for medium/long-range combat.
Phase 2 development will take place between 2026 and 2028, at an estimated cost of USD 490 million, during which work will be done on the integration of new guided armament and, probably, on the internal armament bay that should be available for Block 2 aircraft.
