By Jun Ji-hye
A South Korean team negotiating with Lockheed Martin has asked the U.S. State Department to lift its ban on the transfer of some of the 21 technologies related to Lockheed’s F-35 stealth fighter, officials said Monday.
The negotiating team, including officials from the Ministry of National Defense, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs returned home Saturday after week-long talks with Lockheed about the fighter technology transfer.
During the visit, the team contacted the State Department separately to ask for the U.S. government’s issuance of an export license for all 21 technologies, officials said.
An official told reporters on the condition of anonymity that the negotiation atmosphere was “not bad,” saying the State Department is trying to be as cooperative as it can be.
But the official said that there were still many things to be ironed out.
“The negotiations are not finished yet,” the official said, indicating that the decision about the transfer would be put off until next year.
Another official said that the U.S. side complained that the Korean government is disclosing details of the technologies to the media.
“They reacted sensitively to media reports about the technologies, asking Seoul not to disclose details until a deal is done,” the official said.
The transfer of a total of 25 technologies was included in an offset deal with Lockheed Martin in return for Korea’s purchase of 40 F-35s, signed in September last year.
Seoul was planning to use such technologies in its 8.5 trillion won KF-X project aimed at building indigenous fighter jets by 2025 to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s.
However, the U.S. government refused in April to allow Lockheed to hand over four core technologies, including the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, to Korea for security reasons.
Amid growing skepticism about the feasibility of the KF-X program at the time, DAPA had said that the U.S. government would approve the transfer of another 21 technologies in November.
But the negotiation has been delayed after Lockheed officials, during their initial talks in Seoul from Nov. 18 to 20, told the procurement agency to concretely subdivide the 21 technologies that Korea wants, citing the hundreds of technical details are related to such technologies.
The U.S. State Department said last week that it would provide maximum support for the KF-X project, dismissing speculation that the department was negative about approving the transfer of some of the technologies.
But observers say it is expected to take quite a while to specify these details and identify what is really necessary for the KF-X project, and the U.S. government is also likely to refuse to issue an export license for some of the technologies that Korea wants.
The official said, “The two sides will hold additional negotiations.”
If the U.S. side once again rejects the transfer of part of the 21 technologies, it will be almost impossible for the nation to complete the development of the fighter jets by 2025.
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