South Korea to Award Tanker, Fighter Contracts by End of Year

The Republic of Korea Air Force expects to make a selection and sign a contract on its new tanker before the end of the year.
The service will also announce its next-generation fighter selection next month.
The F-X program will replace South Korea’s aging F-4 and F-5 fighter fleet. It is widely believed that Seoul has settled on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The selection will also help kick off the KF-X program, South Korea’s development program of an indigenous fighter design. The two programs are directly linked.
The Korean air force opened its doors for bidding on its KC-X tanker program in October. Korean is looking for something with cargo capacity as well as both boom and drogue refueling capabilities.
Three platforms have been entered into the competition: The Airbus A330, Boeing’s KC-46A platform and an offering from Israeli Aerospace Industries of modified, previously owned Boeing 767s.
Other modernization priorities are also moving along. Korea will introduce it’s first C-130J transport next month, while it expects to see movement on its purchase of four Global Hawk unmanned systems.
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