The Sixth and Final Prototype Of South Korea's homegrown KF-21 Boramae Fighter Successfully Performed Its First Flight

As per the South  Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) , on 28th June , KAI KF-21 prototype number 6 took off at 3:49 pm from the 3rd Training Wing in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, and flew for 33 minutes.

With this announcement, the final prototype of South Korea's homegrown KF-21 Boramae fighter successfully performed its first flight Wednesday, marking the latest progress in the country's pursuit to develop an advanced warplane.

Initially, the KF-21 prototype was produced as a single-seat aircraft with one pilot (Units 1, 2, 3, and 5) and a two-seat aircraft (Units 4 and 6) with two pilots, and all of Units 1 to 5 had previously succeeded in test flights.

Notably, the first and second prototypes of Boramae made their maiden flights in July and November of 2022, respectively, while the third, fourth and fifth ones each performed their first flights in January, February and May this year.

South Korea had launched the 8.8 trillion-won (US$6.74 billion) project in 2015 to develop an advanced supersonic fighter intended to replace the country's aging fleet of F-4 and F-5 jets.

Indonesia had signed a contract with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in January 2016 and agreed to pay about 1.7 trillion won, or 20% of the KF-21 development cost, by year 2026.

The final prototype will undergo additional flight tests, such as those on avionics performance and armaments, and flight operation comparison against other single-seat prototypes, according to DAPA.

Out of the six prototypes made till date , only the fourth and sixth are equipped with two tandem seat cockpit configuration. These twin-seater variants of the KF-21 Boramae will be used for pilot familiarization and training sorties.

The South Korean Air Force has a plan of procuring a total of 120 KF-21 fighterjets , which is scheduled for the first 40 mass-production between year 2026 and 2028, followed by next batch of 80 aircraft by 2032 , eventually replace the aging F-4 and F-5 fighters in the current fleet.

The South Korean KF-21 fighter jet will have a maximum speed of Mach 1.81 and a range of 2,900 km., also expected to be armed with air-to-air weapons such as British Meteor and German AIM-2000 missiles as a minima.

Related Post....