By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Air Force plans to stop flying about 20 aircraft more than 35 years old to save funds on operations and maintenance, an Air Force spokesman said Wednesday.
The plan is part of the Air Force's mid- to long-term efforts to overhaul its maintenance and logistics support system, following the crash of an F-16 fighter in February. The crash was the result of poor maintenance of its engine, the Air Force said.
The aircraft to be decommissioned are A-37 Dragonfly light attack aircraft and RF-5 reconnaissance planes, Col. Kim Kyu-jin told reporters. The Air Force adopted the Northrop-built RF-5 in 1959 and the A-37, a re-make or upgrade of the Cessna T-37 of the U.S. Air Force, in 1963.
``The saved funds and additional engineering workforce from the decommissioning will be invested in maintaining other aircraft and purchasing spare parts,'' Kim said.
The Air Force has requested the Defense Ministry set aside some $711 million for aircraft maintenance next year, up $22 million from this year, and boost the budget over the next three years in stages.
In March, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kim Sung-il resigned after facing a barrage of public criticism over the Air Force's lack of discipline and poor maintenance system.
An in-house audit also revealed that the Air Force misappropriated some $262 million of its defense budget intended for combat aircraft maintenance over the past years, while engineers used to replace required spare parts with ones from others planes.
Since then, the Air Force has grounded about 60 F-16s to inspect them for engine defects. It has also formed a task force led by the Air Force deputy chief to come up with ways of improving the logistics support mechanism.
In bids to help facilitate the supply of spare parts of aging U.S.-made fighter jets, such as F-5s and F-4s, the Air Force is seeking to purchase the required components from other nations, Kim said.
Last month, the task force members visited Israel to discuss ways of purchasing spare parts for the F-5 Freedom Fighter and is consulting with Spain over parts for the F-4 Phantom, he said.
An Air Force source said a plan to buy aging F-16 parts from the aircraft producer Lockheed Martin under a commercial deal is also being considered.
The government-to-government Foreign Military Sale (FMS) program requires guarantee money and complicated bureaucratic procedures for approval, he said.
He said South Korea has had difficulty supplying needed parts to its F-16 units in time and that the cost of aircraft parts has risen with most F-16 production lines being closed worldwide.