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South Korea’s pledge to transfer key technology from developer Lockheed Martin while introducing the F-35A as a next-generation fighter has foundered on objections from the US government, sources report.

The technology in question would have been essential in development of the indigenous KF-X fighter. While the administration and military maintain the KF-X can still be developed without the US’s technical support, there are concerns that setbacks may be inevitable.

“While we had planned to acquire technology in 25 categories while signing a contract with the US munitions company Lockheed Martin to acquire 40 F-35A fighters, the US government has refused to approve the export of four of the types, not including the other 21, for security policy reasons,” explained a source with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

The administration had originally planned to acquire the technology from Lockheed Martin for use in developing South Korea’s own KF-X model. The South Korean development program involves independently developing an F-16-level medium fighter plane to replace the Air Force’s outdated F-4 and F-5 models by 2025. The project is massive in scale, with a total of 18 trillion won (US$15.2 billion) in development and production costs for 120 aircraft.

The technology that the US refused to approve for export is used to integrate four types of equipment into the fighter plane system, namely active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, infrared search and track (IRST) equipment, an electronic optics targeting pod (EOTGP), and RF jammers.

“Domestic development is still under way as planned for those four types of equipment through the acquisition of overseas technology,” said a DAPA source.

“What the US government is taking issue with is the technology for integrating them into the fighter system,” the source added.

The US’s objections are based on policies to prevent the overseas transfer of cutting-edge technology for security reasons, sources reported.

DAPA and the military maintain that the South Korean fighter development project will not suffer any major problems without the US technology transfer.

“We don’t expect any major difficulties for the Korean fighter development project even if the US doesn’t provide those four types of technology,” newly appointed Air Force Chief of Staff Jeong Kyeong-doo said during a National Assembly National Defense Committee audit at Air Force headquarters on Sept. 22.

The DAPA is currently exploring the options of developing these technologies at home or acquiring them through technological cooperation with another country - in Europe, perhaps.

“We will acquire the four technologies that the US rejected through international cooperation with Europe and by using domestic technology. Considerable development has already taken place on some of these technologies,” said DAPA Director Jang Myeong-jin during a parliamentary inspection of DAPA by the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee on Sep. 17.

DAPA believes that technology combining the electronic optics targeting pod (EOTGP) with an RF jammer can be developed in South Korea. In regard to technology combining the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar with infrared search and track (IRST), DAPA is reportedly pursuing the option of acquiring this technology from Europe.

However, there are concerns about whether this will proceed as smoothly as DAPA expects.

“Since most of the key equipment is American, not having the cooperation of the US will only increase development risks. Even if we do succeed at developing this equipment, there could be compatibility problems with the American equipment,” said Rep. Ahn Gyu-baek, a lawmaker with the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) during the National Defense Committee’s parliamentary inspection of the South Korean air force on Sep. 17.

The problem is that there is nothing the South Korean government can do about the US government’s unilateral refusal of the technology transfer.

When the South Korean government reached a deal with Lockheed Martin to buy the F-35A in Sep. 2014, it was promised a technology transfer in the form of offset trade, but South Korea has little means of penalizing the company for reneging on the agreement.

An offset trade refers to a conditional trade in which a country making a defense purchase asks the foreign defense company in question to compensate by providing a technology transfer or manufacturing parts domestically.

“From the time of the contract, Lockheed Martin indicated that it would be difficult to gain the approval of the US government in regard to exporting the four technologies in question. As a result, we did not make the transfer of these four technologies obligatory and agreed in the contract not to hold the company responsible if the US government refused to approve the transfer,” DAPA said in response.

In other words, since Lockheed Martin was not contractually obligated to transfer these four technologies, it cannot be sued or otherwise be held legally liable.

However, even members of the ruling party are criticizing the South Korean government for making little effort to convince the US to approve the technology transfer.

During the parliamentary inspection of the air force at the National Defense Committee on Sep. 17, Saenuri Party lawmaker Rep. Yoo Seung-min chastised the government for not taking a more active role. “Aside from the Defense Minister sending an official request for cooperation to the US Secretary of Defense this past April, it’s unclear what effort our government made to resolve this issue,” Yu said.

Another potential obstacle for South Korea’s plans to develop its own jet fighter is the behavior of Indonesia, which has promised to fund 20% of the cost of the program. In October of last year, DAPA reached a basic agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Defense about a joint development program for the Korean fighter (KF-X).

But with Indonesia facing financial difficulties recently, there is speculation that the country will be unable to follow through on the agreed-upon investment. In fact, there was a report at the beginning of this month that Indonesia had indicated it would have to back out of the Korean fighter development program because of its financial woes.

When queried about this, a DAPA source said, “While it’s true that Indonesia is undergoing economic difficulties, Indonesia responded to our official inquiry by informing us that the report was not accurate and that its current policy remained unchanged.”

But Indonesia is experiencing an economic crisis, with the value of its currency the rupiah plummeting this year, and many analysts think that its participation in the project will depend on its economic situation.

“Since Indonesia also needs to replace its aging fighters, it will probably participate in the program,” the DAPA source said in regard to this.

“If Indonesia breaks its promise to invest, we will consider the option of the South Korean government or Korea Aerospace Industries, the main company involved, increasing their stake in the project.”

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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