hankyoreh

By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter

The Eurofighter Typhoon 3, which had joined Boeing’s F-15SE as one of the final competitors in South Korea’s next-generation fighter project, has been eliminated from the bidding. The Eurofighter is manufactured by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS). Following this development, the only decision left to be made about the project is whether or not to choose the F-15SE.

Baek Yun-hyung, spokesperson for the Korean government’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), held an emergency press conference on Aug. 18. “In our analysis of the prices bid for each jet fighter, we determined that one of the manufacturers had offered a price after arbitrarily changing conditions, which had previously been agreed to during the negotiations with the South Korean government that took place from July 2012 to June 2013,” Baek said. “The DAPA cannot tolerate arbitrary changes during the bidding phase of previous agreed-upon conditions, and so we determined that the cost of this jet exceeded the total budget for the project.”

This jet fighter, which was confirmed to be the Eurofighter, was eliminated from the short list for the project.

During the negotiations, EADS, the manufacturer of the Eurofighter, had agreed to several requests made by DAPA. DAPA had asked that 15 of the 60 total jets be two-seaters and that R&D work be done for weapons system integration so that the South Korean air force could use the fighter weapons it already has.

But the DAPA later discovered that EADS had subsequently made the arbitrary decision to decrease the number of two-seaters from 15 to 6 and had excluded the R&D cost from the final bidding price.

“It’s true that we had agreed upon 15 two-seaters, but that agreement was not even included in our proposal,” said a source from EADS on condition of anonymity. “When one compares the F-35A, which only comes as a single seater, and the F-15SE, which only comes as a two-seater, this was not equitable.”

In regard to R&D for weapons system integration, the source said, “This would involve equipping a European fighter for US weapons, which goes against custom. We never agreed to that.”

Now that the Eurofighter, which had been a strong contender following the elimination of the F-35A, is out of the running as well, only a single jet fighter remains as a candidate for the Defense Acquisition Promotion Committee, chaired by Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, to consider in mid-September. The last candidate is the F-15SE, which is an upgraded version of the F-15K, a model already possessed by the South Korean air force.

While the F-15SE is competitive in terms of its price, 50 years have passed since it was developed, making it unclear whether the committee will select it. There also seems to be a possibility that the committee could change the requirements for the project and ask for the price to be recalculated or could redesign the entire next-generation fighter project from scratch.

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