The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has announced that South Korea will buy 40 F-35 fighter aircraft. South Korea is the third country to acquire the F-35 after Israel and Japan, besides the United States and eight other countries that are part of the F-35 program.
A contract is expected to be signed soon and will be worth 7.3 trillion South Korean won or about $7 billion for 40 of the F-35A Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) variant to be delivered starting in 2018. They are to replace the F-4 and F-5 aircraft in service.
The F-35, the F-15 Silent Eagle and the European Typhoon were the three candidates that had submitted a bid to be awarded a contract for the F-X III project, which originally sought 60 aircraft for no more than 8.3 trillion won. Only the F-15 managed to stay under the budget allocated.
However, South Korea decided not to select the F-15 despite being the only candidate to meet the original requirements. Instead, the F-35 was selected at the cost of reduced numbers with only 40 to be acquired and not 60 as originally planned.
