KF-21
The fun is here again, I don't know if you have heard of the fourth-and-a-half-generation fighter KF-21 being developed in South Korea? In the past, many friends wondered how there was a Polish flag on it.
The Indonesian flag is indeed quite similar to the Polish flag, and Poland and South Korea have a close relationship in the field of arms sales. But the KF-21 is not the Polish flag, but Indonesia, the common developer of the fighter.
Good guys, Indonesia can also develop fighters? In fact, the main thing is to pay money, and Indonesia itself does not have the ability to develop.
Strictly speaking, South Korea can't, this KF-21 fighter wind tunnel was blown out by Lockheed Martin borrowing from the American F-22 fighter (it's really a wind tunnel, not a bragging), and key technologies such as avionics and engines are naturally provided by the United States.
Therefore, the KF-21 looks like a twin brother to the F-22, and even the rectangular air intakes of the backward era are retained. Another disciple of the F-22, Turkey's "Khan", the fifth-generation stealth fighter, is also "blown" based on the shape of the F-22.
It is undeniable that South Korea has put a lot of effort into the KF-21 fighter, and it is not easy to save such a fourth-and-a-half-generation fighter that looks good at present, so that South Korea can become a second-rate aviation advanced country in the world.
What about Indonesia, as a co-R&D country?
Pure soy sauce.
The South Koreans know that Indonesia does not have the ability to participate in research and development, so the positioning for it is that you pay some money and give you 20% of the shares, and I will count you as a share if the research is successful.
Indonesia thinks that this kind of money can be spent, after all, it is good for its defense and aviation industry (the original plan was to have a production line in Indonesia, as well as some R&D and maintenance centers).
As a result, after so many years, South Korea has been extremely aggrieved, because Indonesia has not even paid much money, and it is completely running for prostitution.
People in Indonesia also have a saying, you South Korea is really too cautious. Yes, I promised to spend $2 billion to participate in the program, but what about the part that will be implemented in Indonesia? What about the technology sharing? Why are you keeping everything from me?
For example, a few years ago, there was a big joke, because Indonesia did not get anything about the technology, so the two Indonesian engineers who were lying flat in South Korea and participated in the project received instructions from Indonesia to steal the relevant technology of the KF-21 fighter.
Interesting, right? Indonesia, which participated in the cooperation, did not know anything about all the technology of the aircraft, and had to steal it to obtain information.
As a result, the Indonesian engineer estimated that he had been fishing for too long and was not interested in his work, and was soon discovered by the South Korean side, which made the two countries very embarrassed.
Then the KF-21 completely became a Korean one-man show.
According to the latest news on May 10, South Korea's "Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA)" confirmed that Indonesia has proposed to reduce its funding for the KF-21 fighter jet program, and South Korea does not need to transfer more technology to Indonesia.
That is, I will symbolically contribute some money, and when the time comes, you will sell me a little cheaper, and we will get together and disperse.
South Korea has long been impatient, and the Republic of Korea is not short of money, and in the final analysis, inviting Indonesia to join is mainly based on political interests rather than economic calculations. Since Indonesia didn't want to pay and wanted to steal technology, it simply agreed to Indonesia's proposal.
It turned out that Indonesia was going to pay $2 billion, but Indonesia didn't pay a dime after 2017, so the latest proposal put forward by Indonesia this time is to pay $400 million as an investment by the end of 2026.
According to DAPA, the South Korean side basically agreed.
Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia
This is not bad for Indonesia, which does need to modernize its fleet.
The Indonesian Air Force is currently armed with more than 30 older F-16s and more than a dozen SU-27/30s. It looks good, but these planes are castrated versions purchased from the late eighties to the early '00s and are basically not capable of competing with the Australian and Singapore air forces.
In order to match the status of the first power in Southeast Asia's comprehensive strength, more advanced fighter jets are needed, but there is really no suitable Indonesian product on the market, in fact, it is not nothing, mainly because there is no money.
Therefore, Indonesia is expected to buy the KF-21 with a performance of four and a half generations in the future, and there is the potential to upgrade to a fifth-generation aircraft in the future, but the price will be very favorable.
If it is estimated that Indonesia plans to purchase 50 aircraft at a discounted price in the future, Indonesia can save more than a billion US dollars in the entire fleet life cycle, and can continue to match Indonesia's existing U.S. weapons system.
The conclusion is obvious, it's not that you don't play with South Korea, but that you want to find a way to do big things with little money.
To be fair, South Korea's KF-21 is currently the world's most reliable quasi-fifth-generation fighter program outside of China and the United States. It can be seen that the South Koreans are still very pragmatic at least in the development of this fighter, and they have no heart to be higher than the sky, using mature subsystems, starting from the fourth and a half generations, and reserving space for upgrading to the fifth generation.
In other countries, Russia's SU-57 program is much earlier than the KF-21, but until now there are still only a dozen of them in the test state, although it has been claimed to be in Syria and Ukraine, but the mass production plan is still far away.
And in addition to the fact that the SU-57 is a proper fifth-generation aircraft in terms of maneuverability (core power), it is debatable whether the stealth performance and avionics performance reach the fifth-generation aircraft, and it is more appropriate to call it the 4.75 generation. As for the SU-75, it is still at the model stage.
Completed the first flight of the prototype of the Turkish Khan fighter
Suddenly the prototype of the Turkish "Khan" fighter came out, but to tell the truth, it was too rough. Although with the help of the Americans and Europeans, the prototype also appeared, and some time ago Turkey fooled Malaysia into purchasing "Khan", but now the completion of Khan is too low, and as Erdogan's face project, I am even pessimistic about its future.
As for Europe and Japan, they simply abandon fifth-generation aircraft and want to engage in sixth-generation aircraft. Probably their imagination has become scarce with the decline of national strength, and the sixth-generation aircraft PPT launched has a taste of J-20.
And the progress of the KF-21 can be said to be neither hasty nor impatient, and it belongs to the yes steadily. Starting this year, the South Korean Air Force will purchase the current 4.5-generation version of the KF-21, and it is expected that the upgrade to the quasi-fifth-generation version will be delivered in 2026.
Of course, the so-called five-generation version can only be said to have just entered the door of the fifth generation.
Stealth is still at the level of the F-22 thirty years ago, and probably not as good as that. The power system is also very weak, and as for the avionics level, do you expect the Americans to put the F-35 avionics into the KF-21? Then South Korea simply don't buy the F-35. Besides, it is impossible for the United States to cultivate an arms sales rival out of thin air.
F-35
What is the definition of KF-21? It has a great advantage in the face of the F-15/16 and SU-27/30, but it is also a miscellaneous position for the "high-end" F-35.
It's like South Korea's position to the United States.