The world will soon see the KF-21 Boramae make its maiden flight in 2022. The South Korean and Indonesian project aircraft have conducted trials with 14 Indonesian Air Force and Korean Air pilots some time ago.
It is undeniable that the development of the KF-21 Boramae had experienced several obstacles until it finally arrived at this point. Now, the United States (US) has put its eyes on the KF-21 Boramae, which South Korea and Indonesia have developed.
The US is reportedly concerned about the technology in the KF-21 project being leaked.
"The United States does not want the technology to manufacture its fighter aircraft to fall into the hands of Indonesia, so it is envious of Indonesia's joint development," said theguru.co.kr media on Sunday, January 9, 2022.
If Indonesia does joint production with Korea, it is very likely that the core US technology will leak, so they are reluctant to jointly develop it.
The US has maintained security to the extent that it directly sent representatives to Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI).
In fact, a KAI official said in an interview with Azushibo in Hong Kong in 2018.
"The Indonesian delegation is prohibited from accessing KF-X technology and research, especially in many fields related to the United States," he explained.
This proves how sensitive Uncle Sam's country is to US technology leaks.
In addition, the US has also handled the low-cost part of development in Indonesia. Indonesia provided one-fifth of the cost of developing the KF-21. As much as 20 trillion rupiah needs to be saved in Korea to finance the project.
Currently, Indonesia has paid 227.2 billion won for the construction. However, the amount of unpaid contributions has been reduced.
It is known, the Korean government has reduced its contribution by 100 billion won to reduce the burden on the Indonesian government. For this reason, Indonesia plans to pay contributions for five years until 2026.
Initially, there were concerns that Indonesia would withdraw from co-production while delaying the payment of user fees. But in November last year, Indonesia and South Korea agreed on a plan to pay the unpaid share and dismissed rumors of a withdrawal.
Indonesia plans to pay around 30% of the KF-21 development contribution in kind, not cash. In the payment, Indonesia plans to provide palm oil, a typical Indonesian vegetable oil.
There is another reason why the US is concerned about the joint development of fighter aircraft between South Korea and Indonesia.
The US is concerned about market competition as the KF-21 Boramae is expected to damage the F-35 market if completed. The F-35 is a supersonic stealth vertical take-off and landing fighter aircraft developed by Lockheed Martin.
The US believes that if the KF-21 Boramae is completed, it will be a milestone for Indonesia to become self-sufficient in defense equipment. South Korea and Indonesia agreed to jointly develop the KF-21 and IF-X, 4.5th generation fighter aircraft.
The development of KF-21 Boramae invested about 8 trillion won (20% of Indonesia) from 2015 to 2028. With the aim of developing a total of 6 prototype units, up to the 3rd unit has been delivered. Since 2017, Indonesia has not paid contributions due to the domestic economic situation.
Reporting from the AeroTime page, the KF-21 Boramae will fly for the first time in July 2022 at Sacheon Airport (HIN). The long story of South Korea's newest stealth fighter jet KAI KF-21 Boramae is almost over.
The aircraft was finally rolled out in April 2021 at the premises of Korea Aerospace Industries in Sacheon. Its maiden flight has been scheduled for July 2022 for a while now and this is the most concrete date of all the new 2022 aircraft.
