Boeing/Airbus/Korean Airlines to offer KF-X entry

That's it, the end is nigh, turn the lights out. Boeing and Airbus have partnered to try to knock Lockheed Martin off the top spot in the South Korean KF-X program. Lockheed won the F-X Phase 3 program with the F-35.

DAPA issued an RFP for the program on December 23rd, with a currently unapproved budget of $7.9B. Originally Boeing was working with Korean Airlines as the indigenous partner, but sources now say Airbus is on the team as well. This allows Boeing to transfer technologies that can't be transferred from the US, which limits technology transfers. It's expected that Boeing will offer either an E/F Super Hornet or an Advanced Super Hornet base aircraft, and Airbus would then offer some sort of stealth technology that Boeing is not authorized to transfer. Once the final design is on paper, Korean Airlines will submit it to DAPA for consideration.

SYDNEY – Airbus and Boeing are jointly attempting to unseat Lockheed Martin from South Korea’s KF-X indigenous fighter program, offering technology from Europe that could not be supplied from U.S. sources, industry officials say.

With Korean Airlines as the local partner, the pair are likely to be proposing the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet as a base design for the KF-X.

The defense ministry’s procurement office, the Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA), issued a request for proposals for KF-X development on Dec. 23.

The Boeing-Airbus KF-X proposal should be an economical alternative to a fighter design of the defense ministry’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD) that Korea Aerospace Industries has been expected to build with technical assistance from Lockheed Martin.

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