SEOUL/WASHINGTON, Sept 25 South Korea has decided to purchase 40 F-35A fighter jets from the U.S. defense firm Lockheed Martin in a deal worth 7.3 trillion won (US$7.04 billion), the state arms procurer said Wednesday.
Under the purchase deal, Lockheed Martin will transfer fighter production technologies in 17 sectors to be used for South Korea’s project to develop an indigenous next-generation fighter jet, the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said.
“We held negotiations from March to September on technology, price and trade-off conditions and decided to adopt 40 units even under the limited conditions of the (state-to-state) foreign military sales (FMS) process,” a DAPA spokesman said. “The purchase price per unit is around 120 billion won.”
After signing a formal deal with the U.S. later this month, the military will push to deploy the new combat planes from 2018 to 2021, he noted.
Sources said that among the technologies Lockheed Martin would transfer are flight control and fire-extinguishing functions.
The purchase program is designed to replace South Korea’s aging fleet of F-4 and F-5 fighter jets.
Also on Wednesday, DAPA finalized a plan to produce an indigenous next-generation fighter.
Under the 8.5 trillion won project, the military will manufacture 120 units of an upgraded middle-size fighter jet to be deployed from 2025, the spokesman added.
The United States welcomed the South’s decision.
“We welcome the announcement that the Republic of Korea intends to sign the Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) between the U.S. and Korean governments for 40 F-35A Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) variant jets with initial deliveries beginning in 2018,” said Lt. Col. Jeff Pool, a spokesman for the Defense Department.
“Korea becomes the 3rd Foreign Military Sales customer joining Israel, Japan and our eight partner nations on the program. This is a good day for the F-35 program and we look forward to working with the Republic of Korea government in executing its F-35 program,” he said.
