[South Korea] KF-X Korean Fighter prototype about to begin final assembly

[Prince Kassad]

The first KF-X prototype be officially rolled-out in April, 2021 with first flight taking place in 2022.
Total of 6 prototypes will be built and undergo testing until production model KF-X enters service in 2026.
KF-X is a 4.5th gen fighter with future development into 5th gen fighter taken into account.

Like the Gripen, it's a mix of indigenous and foreign technology. Some examples:

Overall Design: Indigenous (KAI)

Engines: GE F414 (American)

Radar: Indigenous (Hanwha Systems)

Avionics: Indigenous

Armament: Indigenous + European

IRST: Leonardo Skyward (European)

 

[Indos]

Design is made by ADD Korea, KAI Korea, Indonesian Aerospace. KAI join the program in 2015 while ADD Korea and Indonesia Aerospace has started the R&D since 2010.

Dont trust wikipedia, but use respected publication like Jane Defense. I even get banned until now when I tried to fix KFX/IFX Wikipedia.

 

[Trango Towers]

View attachment 666349


The first KF-X prototype be officially rolled-out in April, 2021 with first flight taking place in 2022.
Total of 6 prototypes will be built and undergo testing until production model KF-X enters service in 2026.
KF-X is a 4.5th gen fighter with future development into 5th gen fighter taken into account.

View attachment 666350


Like the Gripen, it's a mix of indigenous and foreign technology. Some examples:

Overall Design: Indigenous (KAI)

Engines: GE F414 (American)

Radar: Indigenous (Hanwha Systems)

Avionics: Indigenous

Armament: Indigenous + European

IRST: Leonardo Skyward (European)

Interesting how they only bought American engines. Speaks volumes

 

[Indos]

Interesting how they only bought American engines. Speaks volumes

South Korea through Hanwa will license produce F 414 engine.

 

[Mustafa27]

Its good that they have ambition to make it a fifth generation fighter after the first block,do they have any
indigenous engine in the works or is it still gonna be american engine when it reaches 5-gen.

 

[HammerHead081]

Americans are truly best at making engines

 

[Indos]

Its good that they have ambition to make it a fifth generation fighter after the first block,do they have any
indigenous engine in the works or is it still gonna be american engine when it reaches 5-gen.

Despite the engine has less power than F35 engine but with the aerodynamic of the body, KFX/IFX is designed to have better speed than F 35 with its twin F 414 engine.

About the block 2, there is no information about the engine, but it looks like still use F414 or further variant of F 414 (there is plan to make new variant of F414 which AMCA program is likely to be the main user of the engine)

 

[Leishangthem]

If it was a made in china ,they would've called it f-35 copy .

In November 2017, Indonesia, through state-owned Indonesia Aerospace, failed to pay its share in the latest round of development costs, prompting criticism from South Korea.[8][24] As of 2019, Indonesia was renegotiating its involvement in the program.[2] FlightGlobal reported in July 2019 that Indonesia was exploring payment in Indonesia-produced armaments instead of cash.[4] By July 2019, Indonesia was approximately ₩300 billion in arrears.[25][needs update]

Tragic..... Poor korea.

 

[Philip the Arab]

@Indos
Stealth pods should be considered for weapons to keep lower RCS in the future.

 

[Figaro]

Interesting how they only bought American engines. Speaks volumes

What is so interesting? The F-414, EJ-200, and M-88 are still very state of the art engines, with a thrust to weight ratio of approximately 9.

Americans are truly best at making engines

It wasn't always the Americans though. The Germans in WW2 were the most ahead in gas turbine technology (i.e. Me-262 turbojet fighter). Then the US and Soviet Union were relatively close in turbofan technology for most of the Cold War until the early 90s, when the USSR collapsed. Of course as of recently, the European military turbofan makers have fallen behind the US, especially given the introduction of the F135 ... the Russians have fallen even further behind.

 

[Indos]

@Indos
Stealth pods should be considered for weapons to keep lower RCS in the future.

View attachment 666471

I think that will create drag and I also think the missiles that are put in KFX/IFX fuselage body is enough to have relatively good RCS. So for Stealth mode configuration KFX/IFX will only have 4 missiles intach in the fuselage body

 

[Whizzack]

@Indos
Stealth pods should be considered for weapons to keep lower RCS in the future.

Block 2 and beyond will have built-in IWB, so stealth pods are not required... Block 1 will have the missiles mounted semi-recessed in the underbelly as shown in the pic by Indos...

 

[Indos]

And also for another consideration, KFX/IFX has much better range than F 35 so I hope Arab countries consider the plane to be their future fighter (if the program inshaAllah is successful)

Official video from the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) teases that Internal Weapons Bay (IWB) is already reflected in KF-X's software development.

The cockpit GUI (Graphical user Interface) features open / close function of an IWB and 6 x AAMs inside the IWB.

Taken from official ADD Korea Youtube channel

 

[volatile]

Indeed a very good start to the project .Instead of wasting hours and years on developing full system threat assesment against 4.5 generation figther this will be an interm solution with industrial solution ready in couple of years they will probably skipped 5th Generation and moved to 6th

 

[Falcon26]

And also for another consideration, KFX/IFX has much better range than F 35 so I hope Arab countries consider the plane to be their future fighter (if the program inshaAllah is successful)

Official video from the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) teases that Internal Weapons Bay (IWB) is already reflected in KF-X's software development.

The cockpit GUI (Graphical user Interface) features open / close function of an IWB and 6 x AAMs inside the IWB.


View attachment 666510
View attachment 666511
View attachment 666512

Taken from official ADD Korea Youtube channel

Do South Korea and Indonesia have resale authorization for the engines? If so, it can be a nice stop gap acquisition for Pakistan, especially given how cheap these planes are relative to European fighter jets. @Bilal Khan (Quwa)