The 6th KF-21 Boramae prototype made its maiden flight

The Korea Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced on June 28 that the 6th KF-21 Boramae prototype had successfully made its maiden flight.

The aircraft took off at 15:49 local time from the 3rd Training Wing in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, and flew for 33 minutes.

In the front seat of the tandem-seat 6th prototype sat Major Lee Chul-soo of the 52nd Air Force Test and Evaluation Squadron. While in the back seat is Ko Hwi-seok, Chief Test Pilot of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI).

This is the first flight of the KF-21 prototype aircraft. Five previous aircraft had successfully flown, namely prototype 1, 2, 3 and 5 with single seats and prototype number 4 with tandem seats.

The Korean government plans to continue performance verification using the six prototypes through operational stability, electronic device performance verification including the Active Electronically Scanned Arrai (AESA) radar, and weapons tests.

Seoul said it would begin mass production of the KF-21 from next year as the aircraft received provisional suitability for combat use last month.

If there are no problems in the performance verification process, it is planned that the aircraft will be delivered to the Korean Air Force (RoKAF) in 2026.

RoKAF plans to acquire 120 aircraft, including the first 40 aircraft in mass production between 2026 and 2028.

After that, production resumed to reach 80 aircraft in 2032 to replace the aging F-4 and F-5 fighters.

The KF-21 has a maximum speed of Mach 1.81 (2,200 km/h) and a cruising range of 2,900 km.

The aircraft will be equipped with air-to-air weapons such as the British Meteor and German AIM-2000 missiles. Then air-to-surface weapons such as the American GBU-12, Korean MK-82, and KGGBm and air-launched cruise missiles (ALCM).

Indonesia will bear around 1.7 trillion won or 20% of the total development cost of 8.8 trillion won until 2026.

“However, after paying only 227.2 billion won in January 2019, they did not pay their share for nearly four years due to lack of budget, and then only paid 9.4 billion won in November last year and around 41.7 billion won in February. This year. Compared to the original plan, about 800 billion won has passed," wrote the Korean media.

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