Korea moves closer to selling T-50 jets to Israel
By Lee Tae-hoon
Korea is stepping up its bid to sell supersonic trainer aircraft to Israel, which wants to replace its fleet of aging Vietnam-era Douglas A-4 Skyhawks, defense officials here said Monday.
“Israel sent a Request for Information (RFI) last November to Korea and Italy, narrowing down the list of candidates to the T-50 Golden Eagle of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and the M-346 Master of Alenia Aermacchi,” a defense source said.
He said Seoul submitted the RFI in March this year and is waiting for the Israeli military to issue a formal request for a proposal ahead of the announcement of a preferred bidder for its jet trainer project.
Earlier in the month, a KAI executive in charge of the T-50 program visited Israel to explain to Israeli officials how a deal with Korea would boost their defense industry.
He pointed out that KAI had purchased about $400 million worth of components from Israeli defense companies and plans to double the import volume in the coming years.
Last Friday, the Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli Defense Ministry would soon choose either KAI’s T-50 or Aermacchi’s M-346 to replace the A-4 Skyhawks for advanced cadet training.
The initial order is expected to be 20 to 30 jets and will mark the first time in 40 years for the Israeli Air Force to import military aircraft not manufactured in the United States.
The English-daily noted that delegations from Korea and Italy were recently in Israel to discuss industrial cooperation in the framework of the sale of the trainer jets.
The paper hinted that Israel wants the winner of the contract to open an assembly line in the Middle East country to manufacture parts of the aircraft and integrate some of its equipment into the planes.
Israeli defense companies fear that hundreds of millions of dollars in deals that they have been seeking in Korea may be in danger if their military chooses the M-346 over the T-50.
But Italy is pinning high hopes on the trainer jet program as its Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has reportedly lobbied Israel heavily using his close ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In April, KAI was picked as the preferred bidder in the trainer jet acquisition program of Indonesia by defeating Italy’s M-346, Russia’s Yakovlev Yak-130 and the Czech Republic’s Aero Vodochody L-159.
M-346 was disqualified from the competition in the first round of assessments in May of last year.
The advanced T-50 Golden Eagle has a top speed of Mach 1.5 and features digital flight controls and a modern ground-based training system.
The single-engine trainer aircraft can help new pilots make smooth transitions to advanced fighters, such the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightening II.