By Lee Tae-hoon
Indonesia has selected Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the developer of the T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer jets, as the preferred bidder for its trainer jet program, the head of KAI announced Tuesday.
In a press briefing, KAI CEO Kim Hong-kyung said Russian’s Yakovlev Yak-130 and the Czech Republic’s Aero Vodochody L-159, the two other finalists in the competition, had been eliminated from the race.
Italy’s M-346, which defeated the T-50 in the trainer jet acquisition deals in the United Arab Emirates in 2009 and Singapore in 2010, was disqualified from the competition in the first round of assessments in May last year.
“Today is a very meaningful day, as Korea is now set to become the world’s sixth exporter of supersonic aircraft, following the United States, Russia, Britain, France and Sweden,” Kim said.
KAI faced an uphill battle in the trainer jet market due to the high price tag of the T-50, as the per-unit price is about $25 million, about 20 percent more expensive than the competing models from Russia the Czech Republic.
If the deal to acquire 16 trainer jets is concluded, it will mark Korea’s first export of the advanced T-50 Golden Eagle, a supersonic trainer jet that has a top speed of Mach 1.5.
The single-engine trainer aircraft features digital flight controls and a modern ground-based training system, which helps new pilots smoothly transition into advanced fighters, such the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightening II, as well as the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Experts say the strategic importance and close bilateral ties between Korea and Indonesia played a role in the decision-making process.
President Lee Myung-bak expressed hope for stronger bilateral military exchanges during his visit to Indonesia last December.
Indonesia and Korea signed a memorandum of understanding last July to jointly develop a new fighter.
Korea became the world’s 12th supersonic jet producer in 2005 by developing the trainer jet jointly with U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin.
Seoul is seeking to increase its annual arms production to $10 billion and weaponry exports to $4 billion by 2020. Observers say that sales of the T-50, which had produced no tangible results, are essential to attaining that goal.
Korea pushed to export $500 million worth of the indigenous jets to Singapore last year, but failed to do so due to its high price.
The export of the T-50 was briefly thrown into question when Korean intelligence officials were allegedly found to have broken into the hotel room of a visiting Indonesian delegation in Seoul on Feb. 16. However, both sides remained mum on the incident.