Ⓒ JoongAng Ilbo / JoongAng Ilbo Japanese version2022.07.20 08:34
The Korean domestic supersonic fighter KF-21 “Porame” succeeded in the first test flight on the 19th. It is the first time in 21 years since former President Kim Dae-Jung announced at the graduation ceremony of the Air Force Academy on March 20, 2001 that he would like to develop a state-of-the-art domestic fighter by 2015 at the latest.
According to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the first KF-21 prototype will be the third training of the Air Force near the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) headquarters in Sacheon, Gyeongsangnam-do at around 3:40 pm on this day. I took off from the air force runway. The KF-21 prototype flew for 33 minutes after takeoff, confirmed basic aircraft performance, and landed at around 4:13. Major Ahn Jun-hyung, who belongs to the Air Force 52nd Test Evaluation Squadron, took over the flight. The test flight of the day was held privately.
With the success of the KF-21 test flight, South Korea approaches the world’s eighth supersonic fighter proprietary country after the United States, Russia, China, Japan, France, Sweden and the European Consortium (UK, Germany, Italy, Spain). It will be. The KF-21 will go into production after more than 2000 test flights until 2026. By 2032, 120 aircraft are planned to protect the airspace.
The KF-21 was designed with a top speed of Mach 1.81 (2235 km / h), but for the first flight on that day, it flew at about 400 km / h, which does not exceed the speed of sound (1235 km / h). It has a cruising range of 2900 kilometers and can be equipped with a domestic active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and equipped with air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. We are also considering equipping it with a low search function similar to stealth aircraft. It has a total length of 16.9 meters, a total height of 4.7 meters, and a total width of 11.2 meters. The domestic fighter business called “Korean fighter (KF-X)” has invested 8.8 trillion won in research and development alone, and is called “the largest weapons development business since Dangun.”
The project faced a crisis due to economic problems in 2008, but the atmosphere changed in 2010 with the participation of Indonesia. In 2011, the Korean government decided on exploratory development to confirm the technology used in the actual business and make a basic design. Regarding the number of engines, the Air Force insisted on twin-engines because of future expandability and operational efficiency, and KAI recommended a single-engine with the possibility and cost of future exports, but in the end the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to use twin-engines. I raised it.
After that, when the United States notified that the core technology could not be transferred, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration decided on its own development policy, signed a system development contract with KAI in December 2015, and started the business in January of the following year. It is pointed out that the fact that Indonesia, a co-developing country, has not paid more than 800 billion won and is looking at Rafale made in France and F15EX made in the United States is still a problem.