South Korea's ministry of national defence has confirmed the Boeing F-15K Eagle as the winner of the hard-fought F-X fighter competition. For the first time, General Electric's F110-129 engine has been selected to power the F-15.
The $4 billion deal includes 40 firm orders and up to 40 options. It will allow Boeing to keep theF-15 production line open after 2004 when a US Air Force order is due to be completed and gives GE its long-awaited initial application on the fighter. Boeing will deliver the South Korean F-15Ks from 2005-08.
The agreement includes an offset package and the transition of F110-129 assembly from GE to Samsung Aerospace. Initial F-15K production engines will be delivered by GE under its $340 million share of the deal, with full production engines being assembled from modular kits at Samsung towards the latter phase of the initial batch.
The F-15K was selected over the Dassault Rafale, while the Eurofighter Typhoon and Sukhoi Su-30 were eliminated in March. Dassault has since filed an injunction against the competition in a Seoul court, alleging that the F-X decision was politically biased towards the USA. The South Korean government, however, has long stated that "diplomatic considerations" would be a selection criterion.
The F-15K is based on the two-seat F-15E and is fitted with an upgraded avionics suite based around an advanced display core processor, which is due for retrofit into USAF F-15Es. South Korea has the option of the upgraded Raytheon APG-63(V)1 radar or the same unit with an active electronically scanned array antenna. The F-15K will also have an improved Link 16 datalink and the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System.
Source: Flight International
